INTRODUCTION.
THE subject of the unfolding of consciousness in the
beings whose field of evolution is a solar system is one of considerable
difficulty; none of us may at present hope to do more than master a small
portion of its complexity, but it may be possible to study it in such
fashion as may fill up some of the gaps in our thinking, and as may yield us
a fairly clear outline to guide our future work.
We cannot, however, trace this outline in any way
satisfactory to the intelligence, without considering first our solar system
as a whole, and endeavouring to grasp some idea, however vague that idea may
be, of “the beginnings” in such a system.
1. ORIGINS.
We have learned that the matter in a solar system exists
in seven great modifications, [1] or planes; on three of these, the
physical, emotional (astral), and mental - often spoken of as “the three
worlds”, the well-known Triloki, or Tribhuvanam, of the Hindu cosmogony -
is proceeding the normal evolution of humanity. On the next two planes, the
spiritual - those of wisdom and power, the buddhic and the atmic - goes on
the specific evolution of the Initiate, after the first of the Great
Initiations. These five planes form the field of the evolution of
consciousness, until the human merges in the divine. The two planes beyond
the five represent the sphere of divine activity, encircling and enveloping
all, out of which pour forth all the divine energies which vivify and
sustain the whole system. They are at present entirely beyond our knowledge,
and the few hints that have been given regarding them probably convey as
much information as our limited capacity is able to grasp. We are taught
that they are the planes of divine Consciousness, wherein the LOGOS, or the
divine Trinity of Logoi, is manifested, and wherefrom He shines forth as the
Creator, the Preserver, the [2] Dissolver, evolving a universe,
maintaining it during its life-period, withdrawing it into Himself at its
ending. We have been given the names of these two planes: the lower is the
Anupadaka, that wherein “no vehicle has yet been formed”;
the higher is the Adi, “the first”, the foundation of a universe, its
support and the fount of its life. We have thus the seven planes of a
universe, a solar system, which, as we see by this brief description, may be
regarded as making up three groups: I. The field of Logic manifestation
only; II. The field of super-normal human evolution, that of the Initiate;
III. The field of elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal and normal human
evolution. We may tabulate these facts thus:
[3]
The two highest planes may be conceived of as existing
before the solar system is formed, and we may imagine the highest, the Adi,
as consisting of so much of the matter of space - symbolised by points - as
the LOGOS has marked out to form the material basis of the system. He is
about to produce. As a workman chooses out the material he is going to shape
into his product, so does the LOGOS choose the material and the place for
His universe. Similarly we may imagine the Anupadaka - symbolised by lines -
as consisting of this same matter, modified by His individual life,
coloured, to use a significant metaphor, by His all-ensouling Consciousness,
and thus differing in some way from the corresponding plane in another solar
system. We are told that the supreme facts of this preparatory work may be
further imaged forth in symbols; of these we are given two [4] sets,
one of which images the triple manifestation of the Logic Consciousness,
the other the triple change in matter corresponding to the triple Life - the
life and form aspects of the three Logoi. We may place them side by side, as
simultaneous happenings:
We have here, under Life, the primeval Point in the
centre of the Circle, the LOGOS as One within the self-imposed encircling
sphere of subtlest matter, in which He has enclosed Himself for the purpose
of manifestation, of shining forth from the Darkness. At once the question
arises: Why three Logoi? Though we touch here on the deepest question of
metaphysics, to expound which even inadequately requires a volume, we must
indicate the answer, to be wrought out by close thinking. In the analysis of
all that exists, we come to the great generalisation: [5]
“All is separable into ‘I’ and ‘Not I’, the ‘SELF’ and
the ‘Not-Self’. Every separate thing is summed up under one or other of the
headings, SELF or Not-Self. There is nothing which cannot be placed under
one of them. SELF is Life, Consciousness; Not-Self is Matter, Form.” Here,
then, we have a duality. But the Twain are not two separate things isolated
and unrelated; there is a continual Relation between them, a continual
approach and withdrawal; an identification and a repudiation; this
inter-play shows itself as the ever-changing universe. Thus we have a
Trinity, not a Duality - the SELF, the Not-Self, and the Relation between
them. All is here summed up, all things and all relations, actual and
possible, and hence Three, neither more nor less, is the foundation of all
universes in their totality, and of each universe in particular.
This fundamental fact imposes on a Locos a triplicity of manifestation in
[6] a solar system, and hence the One, the Point, going forth in three
directions to the circumference of the Circle of Matter and returning on
Itself, manifests a different aspect at each place of contact with the
Circle-the three fundamental expressions of Consciousness: or Will, Wisdom,
and Activity - the divine Triad or Trinity.
For the Universal SELF, the Pratyag-atma, the “Inner-Self”, thinking of the
Not-Self, identifies Himself with it, thereby sharing with it His Being;
this is the divine Activity, Sat, Existence lent to the Non-existent, the
Universal Mind. The SELF, realising Himself, is Wisdom, Chit, the principle
of preservation. The SELF, withdrawing Himself from the Not-Self, in His
own pure nature, is Bliss, [7] Ananda, free from form. Every LOGOS of
a universe repeats this universal SELF-Consciousness: in His Activity, He
is the creative Mind, Kriya - corresponding to the universal Sat - the
Brahma of the Hindu, the Holy Spirit of the Christian, the Chochmah of the
Kabbalist. In His Wisdom, He is the preserving ordering Reason, Jnana -
corresponding to the universal Chit - the Vishnu of the Hindu, the Son of
the Christian, the Binah of the Kabbalist. In His Bliss, He is the Dissolver
of forms, the Will, Ichchha - corresponding to the universal Ananda - the
Shiva of the Hindu, the Father of the Christian, the Kepher of the Kabbalist.
Thus appear in every universe the three Logoi, the three Beings who create,
preserve, and destroy Their universe, each showing forth predominantly in
His function in the universe one ruling Aspect, to which the other two are
subordinate, though of course ever-present. Hence every manifested GOD is
spoken of as a Trinity. The joining of these three Aspects, or phases of
manifestation, at their outer points of contact with the [8] circle,
gives the basic Triangle of contact with Matter, which, with the three
Triangles made with the lines traced by the Point, thus yields the divine
Tetractys, sometimes called the Kosmic Quaternary, the three divine Aspects
in contact with Matter, ready to create. These, in their totality, are the
Oversoul
of the kosmos that is to be.
Under Form we may first glance at the effects of these
Aspects as responded to from the side of Matter. These are not, of course,
due to the LOGOS of a system, but are the correspondences in universal
Matter with the Aspects of the universal SELF. The Aspect of Bliss, or Will,
imposes on Matter the quality of Inertia - Tamas, the power of resistance,
stability, quietude. The Aspect of Activity gives to Matter its
responsiveness to action - Rajas, mobility. The Aspect of Wisdom gives it
Rhythm - Satva, vibration, harmony. It is by the aid of Matter thus prepared
that the Aspects of Logic Consciousness manifest themselves as Beings.
[9]
The LOGOS - not yet a first, since there is yet no second
- is seen as a Point irradiating a sphere of Matter, drawn round Him as the
field of the future universe, flashing with unimaginable splendour, a true
Mountain of Light, as Manu has it, but Light invisible save on the spiritual
planes. This great sphere has been spoken of as primary Substance: it is the
SELF-conditioned LOGOS, inseparate at every point with the Matter He has
appropriated for His universe, ere He draws Himself a little apart from it
in the second manifestation; it is the sphere of SELF-conditioning Will,
which is to lead to the creative Activity: “I am This,” when the “This,” the
Not-Self, is cognised. The Point, speaking symbolically - in order to make
the suggestion of Form as seen from the side of appearances vibrates
between centre and circumference, thus making the Line which marks the
drawing apart of Spirit and Matter,
[10] rendering cognition possible, and thus generating the Form for
the second Aspect, the Being we call the Second Logos, symbolically the
Line, or Diameter of the Circle. It is said of this in mystic phrase: “Thou
art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee”;
this relation of Father and Son within the unity of the Divine Existence, of
the first and Second Logoi, belongs, of course, to the Day of Manifestation,
the life-period of a universe. It is this begetting of the Son, this
appearance of the Second Logos, the Wisdom, which is marked in the world of
Form by the differentiation, the drawing apart, of Spirit and Matter, the
two poles between which is spun the web of a universe; the separation, as it
were, of the neutral inactive Electricity - which may symbolise the First
Logos - into the dual form of positive and negative - symbolising the
Second - thus making the unmanifest manifest. This separation [11]
within the First Logos is vividly imaged for us in the preparation for
cell-multiplication that we may study on the physical plane, wherein we see
the processes that lead up to the appearance of a dividing wall, whereby
the one cell becomes two. For all that happens down here is but the
reflexion in gross matter of the happenings on higher planes, and we may
often find a crutch for our halting imagination in our studies of physical
development. “As above, so below.” The physical is the reflexion of the
spiritual.
Then the Point, with Line revolving with it, vibrates at
right angles to the former vibration, and thus is formed the Cross, still
within the Circle, the Cross which thus “proceedeth from the Father and the
Son,” the symbol of the Third Logos, the Creative Mind, the divine Activity
now ready to manifest as Creator. Then He manifests Himself as the Active
Cross, or Svastika, the first of the Logoi to manifest outside the two
highest planes, though the third stage of the divine Unfolding. [12]
But before considering the creative Activity of the Third
Logos, we must note the origination of the Monads, or Units of
Consciousness, for whose evolution in matter the field of a universe is to
be prepared. We shall return to their fuller consideration in Chapter II.
The myriads of such Units who are to be developed in that coming universe
are generated within the divine Life, as germ-cells in organisms, before
the field for their evolution is formed. Of this forthgiving it is written:
“THAT willed: I shall multiply and be born”;
and the Many arise in the One by that act of Will. [13] Will has its
two aspects of attraction and repulsion, of in-breathing and out-breathing,
and when the repulsion-aspect energises there is separation, driving apart.
This multiplication within the One by the action of Will
marks the place of origin - the first Logos, the undivided Lord, the Eternal
Father. These are the sparks of the Supreme Fire, the “divine Fragments”,
named generally “Monads”. A Monad is a fragment of the divine Life,
separated off as an individual entity by rarest film of matter, matter so
rare that, while it gives a separate form to each, it offers no obstacle to
the free inter-communication of a life thus incased with the surrounding
similar lives. The life of the Monads is thus of the First Logos, and is
therefore of triple aspect, Consciousness existing as Will, Wisdom, and
Activity; this life takes form on the plane of divine Manifestation, the
second, or Anupadaka, Sons of the Father even as is the Second Logos, but
younger Sons, with [14] none of their divine powers capable of acting
in matter denser than that of their own planes; while He, with ages of
evolution behind Him, stands ready to exercise His divine powers, “the
First-born among many brethren”.
Fitly they dwell on the Anupadaka plane, the roots of their life in the Adi,
as yet without vehicles in which they can express themselves, awaiting the
day of “manifestation of the Sons of God”.
There they remain while the Third Logos begins the external work of
manifestation, the shaping of the objective universe. He is going to put
forth His life into matter, to fashion it into the materials fitted for the
building of the vehicles which the Monads need for their evolution. But he
will not be merged in His work; for, vast as that work seems to us, to Him
it is but a little thing: “Having pervaded this whole universe with a
portion of Myself, I remain”."
That marvellous Individuality is not lost, and only a portion [15]
thereof suffices for the life of a kosmos. The LOGOS, the Oversoul, remains,
the God of His universe. [16]
STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
CHAPTER I.
THE PREPARATION OF THE FIELD.
1. THE FORMATION OF THE ATOM.
THE Third Logos, the Universal Mind, begins His creative
Activity by working on the matter drawn in from the infinite space on every
side for the building of our solar system. This matter exists in space in
forms incognisable by us, but is apparently already shaped to the needs of
vaster systems. For we have been told by H. P. Blavatsky that the atomic
sub-planes of our planes make up the first, or lowest, kosmic plane. If we
think of the atoms of that kosmic plane as symbolised by [17] a
musical note. Our atoms, as formed by the Third Logos, may perhaps be
symbolised by the overtones in such a note. What seems clear is that they
are in close relation to the “atoms of space”, correspond with them, but are
not, in their present form, identical with them. But the seven types of
matter, that become our “atoms”, are indicated in the matter drawn from
space to form the solar system, and are ultimately reducible again to them.
H. P. Blavatsky hints at the repeated seven-fold division into atoms of
lower and lower grade, when she writes: “The One Kosmic Atom becomes seven
atoms on the plane of matter, and each is transformed into a centre of
energy. That same atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit ...
separate till the end of the kalpa and yet in close embrace”.
Outside the limits of a universe this matter is in a very
peculiar state; the three qualities of matter, inertia, mobility, and rhythm,
are balanced against each [18] other, and are in a state of
equilibrium. They might be thought of as existing as a closed circle,
quiescent. In fact, in some ancient books, matter in its totality is
described in this state as inertia. It is also spoken of as virgin; it is
the celestial Virgin Mary, the ocean of virgin matter, that is to become the
Mother by the action of the Third Logos. The beginning of creative Activity
is the breaking of that closed circle, throwing the qualities out of stable
into unstable equilibrium. Life is motion, and the life of the Solar LOGOS -
His Breath, as it is poetically called - touching this quiescent matter,
threw the qualities into a condition of unstable equilibrium, and therefore
of continual motion in relation to each other. During the life-period of a
universe matter is ever in a condition of incessant internal motion. H. P.
Blavatsky says: “Fohat hardens and scatters the seven Brothers … electrifies
into life and separates primordial stuff, or pregenetic matter, into atoms”.
The formation of the atom has three [19] stages.
First, the fixing of the limit within which the ensouling life - the Life of
the Logos in the atom - shall vibrate; this limiting and fixing of the
wave-length of the vibration is technically called “the divine measure”;
this gives to the atoms of a plane their distinctive peculiarity. Secondly,
the Logos marks out, according to this divine measure, the lines which
determine the shape of the atom, the fundamental axes of growth, the angular
relation of these, which determines the form, being that of the
corresponding kosmic atom;
the nearest analogy to these are the axes of crystals. Thirdly, by the
measure of the vibration and the angular relation of the axes of growth with
each other, the size and form of the surface, which we may call the surface
or wall of the atom, is determined. Thus in every atom we have the measure
of its ensouling life, its axes of growth, and its enclosing surface or
wall. [20]
Of such atoms the Third Logos creates five different
kinds, the five different “measures” implying five different vibrations,
and each kind forms the basic material of a plane; each plane, however
various the objects in it, has its own fundamental type of atom, into which
any of its objects may ultimately be reduced.
2. SPIRIT-MATTER.
The epithet, spirit-matter, will perhaps be better
appreciated if we pause for a moment on the method of the formation of the
atoms of the successive planes. For each system the matter of space around
it is its Root of Matter, Mulaprakriti, as the Hindus graphically call it.
The matter of each system has that surrounding matter for its root, or base,
and its own special matter grows out of, is developed from, that. The LOGOS,
the Oversoul, of the system, drawing round Himself the necessary matter from
space, ensouls it with His own life, and this life within this [21]
subtle matter, this Mulaprakriti, is the Atma, the SELF, the Spirit, in
every particle. Fohat, the energy of the Locos, says H. P. B., “digs holes
in space”, and no description could be finer and truer. That whirling energy
forms innumerable vortices, each shaped by the divine energy and the axes of
growth, and each shelled with the matter of space, Atma in a shell of
Mulaprakriti, spirit in a shell of matter, the “atoms” of the Adi, or
highest plane, the first. Some of these remain as “atoms”; others join
together and form “molecules”; “molecules” join together and make more
complex molecular combinations; and so on till six sub-planes below the
atomic are formed. [This by analogy with what may be observed below, since
these highest planes are incognisable.] Now comes the forming of the atoms
of the second plane. Their measure and axes of growth being fixed as above
described by the Third Logos, some of the atoms of the adi, or first, pane
draw round themselves a shell of the combinations of their own lowest
sub-plane; the Spirit plus its original shell of [22]
kosmic matter (Mulaprakriti), or the atom of the first plane, is the
spirit of the second plane, and permeates the new shell, formed out of the
lowest-grade combinations of itself. These shells, thus ensouled, are the
atoms of the anupadaka, or second, plane. By the ever more complicated
aggregations of these the remaining six sub-planes are brought into being.
Some of the atoms of the anupadaka plane, in like manner, become clothed
with the aggregations of their own lowest sub-plane, and thus become the
atmic atoms, the Spirit now being clothed with two shells, inside its atomic
wall of aggregations of the lowest sub-plane of the anupadaka, and the
original Spirit, or Life, plus its two shells, being called the
spirit of the atmic plane, while the wall of its atom is regarded as the
matter. This atom, ensheathed once more in the aggregations of the lowest
atmic sub-plane, becomes the atom of the buddhic plane, Spirit on the
buddhic plane having thus three enclosing films within its atomic shell of
lowest atmic aggregations. On the mental plane the Spirit has a fourfold
sheath within the [23] atomic wall, on the astral plane a fivefold,
and on the physical a sixfold, with the atomic wall in each case in
addition. But the Spirit plus all its sheaths save the outermost is
ever regarded as Spirit, and the outermost sheath only as form or body. It
is this involution of Spirit which makes evolution possible, and complicated
as the description may sound, the principle is simple and can be easily
grasped. Truly, then, may we speak of “spirit-matter” everywhere.
3. THE SUB-PLANES.
Now the ultimate atoms of the physical plane are not the
“atoms” of the modern chemist; the ultimate atoms are aggregated into
successive typical groups, forming “states of matter”, and the chemical atom
may be in the fifth, sixth, or seventh of these states, a gas, a liquid, or
a solid. Familiar are the gaseous, the liquid, and the solid states of
matter, or, as they are often called, the gaseous, liquid, and solid
sub-planes; [24] and above the gaseous are four less familiar
conditions, the three etheric states of matter, or sub-planes, and the true
atomic. These true atoms are aggregated into groups, which then act as
units, and these groups are called molecules; the atoms in a molecule are
held together by magnetic attraction, and the molecules on each sub-plane
are arranged geometrically in relation to each other on axes identical with
the axes of growth of the atom of the corresponding plane. By these
successive aggregations of atoms into molecules, and of simpler into more
complex molecules, the sub-planes of each plane are formed under the
directive Activity of the Third Logos, until the field of evolution,
consisting of five planes, each showing seven sub-planes - the first and
second planes being beyond this field - is completed. But it must not be
supposed that these seven sub-planes, as formed by the Third Logos, are at
all identical with those which are now existing. Taking the physical plane
as an illustration, they bear something of the same [25] relation to
the present sub-planes as that which the chemist calls proto-hydrogen bears
to the chemical element said to be built up out of it. The present
conditions were not brought about by the work of the Third Logos only, in
whom Activity predominates; the more strongly attractive or cohesive
energies of the Second Logos, who is Wisdom and therefore Love, were needed
for the further integrations.
It is important to remember that the planes are
interpenetrating, and that corresponding sub-planes are directly related to
each other, and are not really separated from each other by intervening
layers of denser matter. Thus we must not think of the atomic sub-planes as
being separated from each other by six sub-planes of generally increasing
density, but as being in immediate connexion with each other. We may figure
this in a diagram as follows: [26]
It must be understood that this is a diagram, not a
picture i.e., it represents relations, not material facts-the
relations existing between the planes by virtue of their intermingling, and
not forty-nine separate bricks placed in seven rows, one an the top of
another.
Now this relation is a most important one, for it implies
that life can pass from [27] plane to plane by the short road of the
communicating atomic sub-planes, and need not necessarily circle round
through the six molecular sub-planes before it can reach the next atomic
sub-plane to continue its descent. As a matter of fact we shall find
presently that life-streams from the Monad do follow this atomic road in
their descent to the physical plane. If we now consider a physical atom,
looking at it as a whole, we see a vortex of life, the life of the Third
Logos, whirling with inconceivable rapidity. By the attraction between
these whirling vortices, molecules are built up, and the plane with its
sub-planes formed. But at the limiting surface of this whirling vortex are
the spirillae, whirling currents, each at right angles to the one within it
and the one without it. These whirling currents are made by the life of the
Monad, not by the life of the Third Logos, and are not present at the early
stage we are considering; they develop one after another into full activity
in the course of evolution, normally one in each Round; their rudiments are
indeed completed by the Fourth [28] Round by the action of the Second
Logos, but the life-stream of the Monad circulates in only four of them, the
other three being but faintly indicated. The atoms of the higher planes are
formed on the same general plan, as regards the Logic central vortex and its
enclosing currents, but all details are at present lacking to us. Many of
the practices of yoga are directed to bring about the more rapid evolution
of the atoms by quickening this spirillae vivifying work of the Monad upon
it. As these currents of the monadic life are added to the Logic vortex, the
note of life grows richer and richer in its quality. We may compare the
central vortex to the fundamental note, the whirling encircling currents to
the overtones; the addition of each overtone means an added richness to the
note. New forces, new beauties, are thus ever added to the seven-fold chord
of life.
4. THE FIVE PLANES.
The different responses which the matter of the planes
will later give under [29] the impulse of consciousness depend on the
work of the Third Logos, on the “measure” by which He limits the atom. The
atom of each plane has its own measure, as we have seen, and this limits its
power of response, its vibratory action, and gives it its specific
character. As the eye is so constituted that it is able to respond to
vibrations of ether within a certain range, so is each type of atom, by its
constitution, able to respond to vibrations within a certain range. One
plane is called the plane made of “mind-stuff”, because the “measure” of
its atoms makes their dominant response that which answers to a certain
range of the vibrations of the Knowledge Aspect of the LOGOS, as modified by
the Creative Activity.
Another is called the plane of “desire-stuff”, because the “measure” of its
atoms makes their dominant response that which answers to a certain range of
the vibrations of the Will
Aspect of the LOGOS. Each type of atom has thus its own peculiar [30]
power of response, determined by its own measure of vibration. In each atom
lie involved numberless possibilities of response to the three aspects of
consciousness, and these possibilities within the atom will be brought out
of the atom as powers in the course of evolution. But the capacity of the
matter to respond, and the nature of the response, these are determined by
the original action of the triple Self on it, and by the measure imposed on
the atoms by the Third Logos; He, out of the infinite capacity of His own
multitude of vibratory powers, gives a certain portion to the matter of a
particular system in a particular cycle of evolution. This capacity is
stamped on matter by the Third Logos, and is ever maintained in matter by
His life infolded in the atom. Thus is formed the fivefold field of
evolution in which consciousness is to develop.
This work of the Third Logos is usually spoken of as the
First Life Wave. [31]
CHAPTER II.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. THE MEANING OF THE WORD.
LET us now consider what we mean by consciousness, and
see if this consideration will build for us the much longed -for “bridge”,
which is the despair of modern thought, between consciousness and matter,
will span for us the “gulf” alleged to exist for ever between them.
To begin with a definition of terms consciousness and
life are identical, two names for one thing as regarded from within and from
without. There is no life without consciousness; there is no consciousness
without life. When we vaguely separate them in thought and analyse what we
have done, we find that we have called consciousness turned inward by the
name of life, and life [32] turned outwards by the name of
consciousness. When our attention is fixed on unity we say life; when it is
fixed upon multiplicity we say consciousness; and we forget that the
multiplicity is due to, is the essence of, matter, the reflecting surface in
which the One becomes the Many. When it is said that life is “more or less
conscious”, it is not the abstraction life that is thought of, but “a living
thing” more or less aware of its surroundings. The more or less awareness
depends on the thickness, the density, of the enwrapping veil which makes it
a living thing, separate from its fellows. Annihilate in thought that veil
and you annihilate in thought also life, and are in THAT into which all
opposites are resolved, the ALL.
This leads us to our next point: the existence of
consciousness implies a separation into two aspects of the fundamental
all-underlying UNITY. The modern name of consciousness, “awareness”, equally
implies this. For you cannot hang up awareness in the void; awareness
[33] implies something of which it is aware, a duality at the least.
Otherwise it exists not. In the highest abstraction of consciousness, of
awareness, this duality is implied; consciousness ceases if the sense of
limitation be withdrawn, is dependent on limitation for existence. Awareness
is essentially awareness of limitation, and only secondarily
awareness of others. Awareness of others comes into being with what
we call Self-consciousness, Self-awareness. This abstract Twain-in-One,
consciousness - limitation, spirit - matter, life - form, are ever
inseparable, they appear and disappear together; they exist only in
relation to each other; they resolve into a necessarily unmanifest Unity,
the supreme synthesis.
“As above, so below.” Again let the “below” help us; let
us look at consciousness as it appears when considered from the side of
form, as we see it in a universe of conscious things. Electricity manifests
only as positive and negative; when these neutralise each other, electricity
vanishes. In all things electricity [34] exists, neutral, unmanifest;
from all things it can appear, but not as positive only, or as negative
only; always as balancing amounts of both, over against each other, and
these ever tending to re-enter together into apparent nothingness, which is
not nothingness but the source equally of both.
But if this be so, what becomes of the “gulf “? what need
of the “bridge”? Consciousness and matter affect each other because they are
the two constituents of one whole, both appearing as they draw apart, both
disappearing as they unite, and as they draw apart a relation exists ever
between them.
There is no such thing as a conscious unit which does not consist of this
inseparate duality, a magnet with two poles ever in relation to each other.
We think of a separate something we call consciousness, and ask how it
works on another [35] separate something we call matter. There are no
such two separate somethings, but only two drawn-apart but inseparate
aspects of THAT which, without both, is unmanifest, which cannot manifest in
the one or the other alone, and is equally in both. There are no fronts
without backs, no aboves without belows, no outsides without insides, no
spirit without matter. They affect each other because inseparable parts of a
unity, manifesting as a duality in space and time. The “gulf” appears when
we think of a “spirit” wholly immaterial, and a “body” wholly material -
i.e., of two things neither of which exists. There is no spirit
which is not matter-enveloped: there is no matter which is not spirit-ensouled.
The highest separated Self has its film of matter, and though such a Self is
called “a spirit” because the consciousness aspect is so predominant, none
the less is it true that it has its vibrating sheath of matter, and that
from this sheath all impulses come forth, which affect all other denser
material sheaths in succession. To say this is not to materialise
consciousness, [36] but only to recognise the fact that the two
primary opposites, consciousness and matter, are straitly bound together,
are never apart, not even in the highest Being. Matter is limitation, and
without limitation consciousness is not. So far from materialising
consciousness, it puts it as a concept in sharp antithesis to matter,
but it recognises the fact that in an entity the one is not found
without the other. The densest matter, the physical, has its core of
consciousness; the gas, the stone, the metal, is living, conscious, aware.
Thus oxygen becomes aware of hydrogen at a certain temperature, and rushes
into combination with it.
Let us now look out of consciousness from within, and see
the meaning of the phrase: “Matter is limitation”. Consciousness is the one
Reality, in the fullest sense of that much-used phrase; it follows from this
that any reality found anywhere is drawn from consciousness. Hence,
everything which is thought, is. That consciousness in which everything is,
everything literally, “possible” as well as “actual” - actual
being that which is [37] thought of as existent by a separated
consciousness in time and space, and possible all that which is not
so being thought of at any period in time and any point in space - we call
Absolute Consciousness. It is the ALL, the ETERNAL, the INFINITE, the
CHANGELESS. Consciousness, thinking time and space, and of all forms as
existing in them in succession and in places, is the Universal
Consciousness, the ONE, called by the Hindu the Saguna BRAHMAN - the
ETERNAL with attributes - the PRATYAG-ATMA - the INNER SELF; - by the
Christian, God; by the Parsi, HORMUZD; by the Mussulman, ALLAH.
Consciousness dealing with a definite time, however long or short, with a
definite space, however vast or restricted, is individual, that of a
concrete Being, a Lord of many universes, or some universes, or a universe,
or of any so-called portion of a universe, his portion and to him
therefore a universe - these terms varying as to extent with the power of
the consciousness; so much of the universal thought as a separate
consciousness can completely think, i.e., on which he can
[38] impose his own reality, can think of as existing like himself, is
his universe. To each universe, the Being who is its Lord gives a
share of his own indefeasible Reality; but is ever himself limited and
controlled by the thought of his superior, the Lord of the universe
in which he exists as a form. Thus we, who are human beings, existing
in a solar system, are surrounded by innumerable forms which are the
thought-forms of the LORD of our system, our ISHVARA, or RULER; the “divine
measure” and the “axes of growth”, thought by the Third Logos, govern the
forms of our atoms, and the surface thought of by Him as the limit of the
atom and resistant, offers resistance to all similar atoms. Thus we receive
our matter, and cannot alter it, save by the employment of methods also
made by His thought; only so long as His thought continues can the atoms,
with all composed of them, continue to exist, since they have no Reality
save that given by His thought. So long as He retains them as His body by
declaring: “I am this; these atoms are My body; they share My life”; so
[39] long they will impose themselves as real on all the beings in this
solar system, whose consciousnesses are clothed in similar garments. When at
the end of the Day of Manifestation He declares: “I am not this; these atoms
are no longer My body; they no longer share My life”; then shall they vanish
as the dream they are, and only that shall remain which is the thought-form
of the Monarch of a vaster system.
Thus, as Spirits, we are inherently, indefensibly divine,
with all the splendour and freedom implied in that word. But we are clothed
in matter which is not ours, which is the thought-forms of the RULER of our
system - controlled again by the RULERS of vaster systems in which ours is
included - and we are only slowly learning to master and use it. When we
realise our oneness with our RULER, then the matter shall have no longer
power over us, and we shall see it as the unreality it is, dependent on His
will, which then we shall know as also ours. Then we can “play” with it, as
we cannot while it blinds us with its borrowed Reality. [40]
Looking thus out of consciousness from within, we see
even more plainly than we saw looking at it from the world of forms, that
there is no “gulf”, and no need for a “bridge”. Consciousness changes, and
each change appears in the matter surrounding it as a vibration, because
the LOGOS has thought vibrations of matter as the invariable concomitant of
changes in consciousness; and as the matter is but the resultant of
consciousness and its attributes are imposed upon it by active thought,
any change in the Logic Consciousness would change the attributes of the
matter of the system, and any change in a consciousness derived from Him
shows itself in that matter as a change; this change in matter is a
vibration, a rhythmical movement within the limits set by Him for the
mobility of masses of matter in that relation. “Change in consciousness and
vibration of the matter limiting it” is a “pair”, imposed by the thought of
the Locos on all embodied consciousnesses in His universe. That such a
constant relation exists is shown by the fact that a vibration in a material
[41] sheath accompanying a change in the ensouling consciousness, and
causing a similar vibration in the sheath ensouled by another consciousness,
is found to be accompanied by a change in that second consciousness similar
to the change in the first.
In matter far subtler than the physical - as mind-stuff
- the creative power of consciousness is more readily seen than in the dense
material of the physical plane. Matter becomes dense or rare, and changes
its combinations and forms, according to the thoughts of a consciousness
active therein. While the fundamental atoms - due to the Logic thought -
remain unchanged, they can be combined or dissociated at will. Such
experiences open the mind to the metaphysical conception of matter, and
enable it to realise at once the borrowed reality and the nonentity of
matter.
A word of warning may be useful with regard to the often
repeated phrases of “Consciousness in a body”, “Consciousness
ensouling a body”, and the like. The student is a little apt to figure
consciousness [42] as a kind of rarefied gas enclosed in a material
receptacle, a kind of bottle. If he will think carefully he will realise
that the resistant surface of the body is but a Logic thought-form, and it
is there because thought there. Consciousness appears as conscious
entities, because the LOGOS thinks such separations, thinks the enclosing
walls, makes such thought limitations. And these thoughts of the LOGOS are
due to His unity with the Universal SELF, and are but a repetition within
the area of a particular universe of the Will to multiply.
A careful dwelling in mind on the distinctions above
traced between Absolute Consciousness, Universal Consciousness, and
Individual Consciousness, will prevent the student from asking the question
so often heard: Why is there any universe? Why does All-Consciousness limit
itself? Why should the Perfect become the imperfect, All-Power become the
powerless, God become the mineral, the brute, the man? In this form the
question is unanswerable, for it is founded on false premises. The Perfect
is the All, the Totality, the Sum of Being. Within [43] its infinity,
as above said, is everything contained, every potentiality, as well as
actuality, of existence. All that has been, is, will be, can be, ever is in
that Fulness, that ETERNAL. Only Itself knows Itself in its infinite
unimaginable wealth of Being. Because it contains all pairs of opposites,
and each pair, in affirming itself, to the eye of reason annihilates itself
and vanishes, It seems a Void. But endless universes arising in It proclaim
It a Plenum. This Perfect never becomes the imperfect; it becomes
nothing; It as all Spirit and Matter, Strength and Weakness, Knowledge and
Ignorance, Peace and Strife, Bliss and Pain, Power and Impotence; the
innumerable opposites of manifestation merge into each other and vanish in
non-manifestation. The All includes manifestation and non-manifestation,
the diastole and systole of the Heart which is Being. The one no more
requires explanation than the other; the one cannot be without the other.
The puzzle arises because men assert separately one of the inseparate pair
of opposites - Spirit, Strength, Knowledge, [44] Peace, Bliss, Power
- and then ask: “Why should these become their opposites?” They do not.
No attribute exists without its opposite; a pair only can manifest;
every front has a back, spirit and matter arise together; it is not that
spirit exists, and then miraculously produces matter to limit and blind
itself, but that spirit and matter arise in the ETERNAL simultaneously as a
mode of Its Being, a form of Self-expression of the All, Pratyagatma and
Mulaprakriti, expressing in time and space the Timeless and Spaceless.
2. THE MONADS.
We have seen that by the action of the Third Logos a
five-fold field has been provided for the development of Units of
Consciousness, and that a Unit of Consciousness is a fragment, a portion of
the Universal Consciousness, thought into separation as an individual entity
veiled in matter, a Unit of the substance of the First Logos, to be sent
forth on the second plane as a separate Being. [45] Such Units are
called technically Monads. These are the Sons, abiding from everlasting,
from the beginning of a creative age, in the Bosom of the Father, who have
not yet been “made perfect through sufferings”;
each of them is truly “equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, but
inferior to the Father as touching his manhood”,
and each of them is to go forth into matter in order to render all things
subject to himself;
he is to be “sown in weakness” that he may be “raised in power”;
from a static Logos enfolding all divine potentialities, he is to become a
dynamic Logos unfolding all divine powers; omniscient, omnipresent, on his
own second plane, but unconscious, “senseless”, on all the others,
he is to veil his glory in matter that blinds him, in order that he may
become omniscient, omnipresent, on all planes, able to answer to all divine
vibrations in the universe instead of to those on the highest only. [46]
The meaning of this feeble description of a great truth
may be glimpsed by the student by a consideration of the facts of embryonic
life and birth. When an Ego is re-incarnating, he broods over the human
mother in whom his future body is a building, the vehicle he will one day
inhabit. That body is slowly built up of the substance of the mother, and
the Ego can do little as to its shaping: it is an embryo, unconscious of its
future, dimly conscious only of the flow of the maternal life, impressed by
maternal hopes and fears, thoughts and desires; nothing from the Ego affects
it, save a feeble influence coming through the permanent physical atom, and
it does not share, because it cannot answer to, the wide-reaching thoughts,
the aspiring emotions of the Ego, as expressed by him in his causal body.
That embryo must develop, must gradually assume a human form, must enter on
an independent life, separate from that of his mother, must pass through
seven years - as men count time - of such independent life, ere the Ego can
fully ensoul it. But during that slow evolution, with [47] its
infantile helplessness, its childish follies, pleasures and pains, the Ego
to whom it belongs is carrying on his own wider, richer, life, and is
gradually coming into nearer and nearer touch with this body, in which alone
he can work in the physical world, his touch being manifested as the growth
of the brain-consciousness.
The condition of the Monad in relation to the evolution
of his consciousness in a universe resembles that of the Ego in relation to
his new physical body. His own world is that of the second, the anupadaka,
plane, and there he is fully conscious with the all-embracing
SELF-consciousness of his world, but not at first of selves, among whom he
is separate, of “others”. Let us try to see the stages through which he
passes. He is first a spark in a flame: “I sense one Flame, O Gurudeva; I
see countless undetached sparks shining in it”.
The Flame is the First Logos, the undetached sparks the Monads. His
Will to manifest is also theirs, for they are the germ-cells in His [48]
body, that will presently have a separate life in His coming universe.
Moved by this Will, the sparks share the change called “the begetting of the
Son”, and pass into the Second Logos and dwell in Him. Then, with the
“proceeding” of the Third, there comes to them from Him the “spiritual
individuality”, that H. P. Blavatsky speaks of, the dawning separateness.
But still there is no sense of “others”, needed to re-act as the sense of
“I”. The three aspects of consciousness, theirs as sharing the Logic life,
are still, to use a figure of speech, “turned inwards”, playing on each
other, asleep, unaware of a “without”, sharing the all-SELF-consciousness.
The great Beings, called the Creative Orders,
arouse them to “outer” life; Will, Wisdom, Activity awake to awareness of
the “without”; a dim sense of “others” arises, so far as “others” may be in
a world where all “‘forms’ intermingle and interpenetrate,” and each
becomes “an individual Dhyan Chohan, distinct from others”.
[49] At the first stage, spoken of above, when the Monads are, in the
fullest sense
of the term, undetached, as “germ-cells in His body”, the Will, Wisdom, and
Activity in them are latent, not potent. His Will to manifest is also their
will, but theirs unconsciously; He, Self-conscious, knows His object and
His path; they, not yet Self-conscious, have in them, as parts of His body,
the moving energy of His Will, which will presently be their own individual
Will to Live, and which impels them into the conditions wherein a
separate-Self-conscious, instead of an all-Self-conscious, life is
possible. This leads them to the second stage in the life of the Second
Logos, and to the Third. Then, comparatively separate, the awakening by the
Creative Orders brings with it the “dim sense of ‘others’” and of “I”, and
with this a thrill of longing for a more clearly-defined sense of “I” and of
“others”; and this is the “individual Will to Live”, and this leads them
forth [50] into the denser worlds, wherein such sharper definition
alone becomes possible.
It is important to understand that the evolution of the
individual “I” is a Self-chosen activity. We are here because we Will to
Live; “none else compels”. This aspect of consciousness, the Will, is dealt
with in later chapters of this book, and here we need only emphasise the
fact that the Monads are Self-moved, Self-determined, in their entry into
the lower planes of matter, the field of manifestation, the five-fold
universe. To their vehicles in it, they remain as the Ego to his physical
body, with their radiant divine life in loftier spheres, but brooding over
their lower vehicles and manifesting more and more in them as they become
more plastic. H. P. Blavatsky speaks of this, as the “Monad is cycling on
downwards into matter”.
Everywhere in nature we see this same striving after
fuller manifestation of life, this constant Will to Live. The seed, buried
in the ground, pushes its growing [51] point upwards to the light.
The bud fettered in its sheathing calyx bursts its prison and expands in the
sunshine. The chick within the egg splits its confining shell in twain.
Everywhere life seeks expression, powers press to exercise themselves. See
the painter, the sculptor, the poet, with creative genius struggling within
him; to create yields the subtlest pleasure, the keenest savour of exquisite
delight. Therein is but another instance of the omnipresent nature of life,
whether in the LOGOS, the genius, or in the ephemeral creature of a day; all
joy in the bliss of living, and feel most alive when they multiply
themselves by creation. To feel life expressing itself, flowing forth,
expanding, increasing, this is at once the result of the Will to Live, and
its fruition in the Bliss of living.
Some of the Monads, willing to live through the toils of
the five-fold universe, in order to master matter and in turn to create a
universe therein, enter into it to become a developed God therein, a Tree of
Life, another Fount of Being. The shaping of a universe is the Day of
[52] Forth-going; living is becoming; life knows itself by change. Those
who will not to become masters of matter, creators, remain in their static
bliss, excluded from the five-fold universe, unconscious of its activities.
For it must be remembered that all the seven planes are interpenetrating,
and that Consciousness on any plane means the power of answering to the
vibrations of that particular plane. Just as a man may be conscious on the
physical plane because his physical body is organised to receive and
transmit to him its vibrations, but be totally unconscious of the higher
planes though their vibrations are playing on him, because he has not yet
organised sufficiently his higher bodies to receive and transmit to him
their vibrations; so is the Monad, the Unit of Consciousness, able to be
conscious on the second plane, but totally unconscious on the lower five.
He will evolve his consciousness on these by taking from
each plane some of its matter, veiling himself in this matter and forming it
into a sheath by which he can come into contact with [53] that plane,
gradually organising this sheath of matter into a body capable of
functioning on its own plane as an expression of himself, receiving
vibrations from the plane and transmitting them to him, receiving vibrations
from him and transmitting them to the plane. As he veils himself in the
matter of each successive plane he shuts away some of his consciousness,
that of it which is too subtle for receiving or setting up vibrations in the
matter of that plane. He has within him seven typical vibratory powers -
each capable of producing an indefinite number of sub-vibrations of its own
type - and these are shut off one by one as he endues veil after veil of
grosser matter. The powers in consciousness of expressing itself in certain
typical ways - using the word power in the mathematical sense, consciousness
“to the third”, consciousness “to the fourth”, etc.- are seen in matter as
what we call dimensions. The physical power of consciousness has its
expression in “three-dimensional matter”, while the astral, mental, and
other powers of [54] consciousness need for their expression other
dimensions of matter.
Speaking thus of Monads, we may feel as if we were
dealing with something far away. Yet is the Monad very near to us, our SELF,
the very root of our being, the innermost source of our life, the one
Reality. Hidden, unmanifest, wrapt in silence and darkness is our Self, but
our consciousness is the limited manifestation of that Self, the manifested
God in the kosmos of our bodies, which are His garments. As the Unmanifest
is partially manifest in the LOGOS, as Divine Consciousness, and in the
universe as the Body of the LOGOS,
so is our unmanifest Self partially manifest in our consciousness, as the
Logos of our individual system, and in our body as the kosmos which clothes
the consciousness. As above, so below.
This hidden SELF it is which is called the Monad, being
verily the One. It is this which gives the subtle sense of unity [55]
that ever persists in us amid all changes; the sense of identity has here
its source, for this is the ETERNAL in us. The three out-streaming
rays which come from the Monad - to be dealt with presently - are his three
aspects, or modes of being, or hypostases, reproducing the Logoi of a
universe, the Will, Wisdom, and Activity which are the three essential
expressions of embodied consciousness, the familiar Atma-Buddhi-Manas of the
Theosophist.
This consciousness ever works as a unit on the various
planes, but shows out its triplicity on each. When we study consciousness
working on the mental plane, we see Will appearing as choice, Wisdom as
discrimination, Activity as cognition. On the astral plane we see Will
appearing as desire, Wisdom as love, Activity as sensation. On the physical
plane, Will has for its instruments the motor organs (karmendriyas), Wisdom
the cerebral hemispheres, Activity the organs of sense (jnanendriyas).
[56]
The full manifestation of these three aspects of
consciousness in their highest forms takes place in man in the same order as
the manifestation of the triple LOGOS in the universe. The third aspect,
Activity, revealed as the creative mind, as the gatherer of knowledge, is
the first to perfect its vehicles, and show forth its full energies. The
second aspect, Wisdom, revealed as the Pure and Compassionate Reason, is the
second to shine forth, the Krishna, the Buddha, the Christ, in man. The
third aspect, Will, is the last to reveal itself, the divine Power of the
Self, that which in its impregnable fulness is Beatitude, is Peace. [57]
CHAPTER III.
THE PEOPLING OF THE FIELD.
1. THE COMING FORTH OF THE MONADS.
WHEN the five-fold field is ready, when the five planes,
each with its seven sub-planes, are completed, so far as their primary
constitution is concerned, then begins the activity of the Second Logos, the
Builder and Preserver of forms. His activity is spoken of as the Second
Life Wave, the pouring out of Wisdom and Love - the Wisdom, the directing
force, needed for the organisation and evolution of forms, the Love, the
attractive force, needed for holding them together as stable though complex
wholes. When this great stream of Logic life pours forth into the five-fold
field of manifestation, it brings with it into activity the Monads, the
Units of Consciousness, ready to begin their [58] work of evolution,
to clothe themselves in matter.
Yet the phrase that the Monads go forth is somewhat
inaccurate; that they shine forth, send out their rays of life, would be
truer. For they remain ever “in the bosom of the Father”, while their
life-rays stream out into the ocean of matter, and therein appropriate the
materials needed for their energising in the universe. The matter must be
appropriated, rendered plastic, shaped into fitting vehicles.
H. P. Blavatsky has described their forth-shining in
graphic allegorical terms, using a symbolism more expressive than
literal-meaning words: “The primordial triangle, which - as soon as it has
reflected itself in the ‘Heavenly Man’, the highest of the lower seven -
disappears, returning into ‘Silence and Darkness’; and the astral
paradigmatic man, whose Monad (Atma) is also represented by a triangle, as
it has to become a ternary in conscious devachanic interludes”.
The primordial triangle, or the three-faced Monad of Will, [59]
Wisdom, and Activity, “reflects itself” in the “Heavenly Man”, as
Atma-Buddhi Manas, and then “returns into Silence and Darkness”. Atma -
often spoken of as the Monad of the lower, or astral man - has to become a
ternary, a triple-faced unit, by assimilating Buddhi and Manas. The word
“reflexion” demands explanation here. Speaking generally, the term reflexion
is used when a force manifested on a higher plane shows itself again on a
lower plane, and is conditioned by a grosser kind of matter in that lower
manifestation, so that some of the effective energy of the force is lost,
and it shows itself in a feebler form. As now used in a special instance, it
means that a stream of the life of the Monad pours forth, taking as the
vessel to contain it an atom from each of the three higher planes of the
five-fold field -the third, the fourth, and the fifth - thus producing the
“Heavenly Man”, the “Living Ruler, Immortal”, the Pilgrim who is to evolve,
for whose evolution the system was brought into being.
“As the mighty vibrations of the Sun throw matter into
the vibrations we call [60] his rays (which express his heat,
electricity, and other energies), so does the Monad cause the atomic matter
of the atmic, buddhic, and manasic planes - surrounding him as the ether of
space surrounds the Sun - to vibrate, and thus makes to himself a Ray,
triple like his own three-fold nature. In this he is aided by Devas from a
previous universe who have passed through a similar experience before; these
guide the vibratory wave from the Will aspect to the atmic atom, and the
atmic atom, vibrating to the Will-aspect, is called Atma; they guide the
vibratory wave from the Wisdom-aspect to the buddhic atom, and the buddhic
atom, vibrating to the Wisdom-aspect, is called Buddhi; also they guide the
vibratory wave from the Activity-aspect to the manasic atom, and the manasic
atom, vibrating to the Activity-aspect, is called Manas. Thus
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Monad in the world of manifestation, is formed, the
Ray of the Monad, beyond the five-fold universe. Here is the mystery of the
Watcher, the Spectator, the action-less Atma, who abides ever in his triple
[61] nature on his own plane, and lives in the world of men by his
Ray, which animates his shadows, the fleeting lives on earth. … The shadows
do the work on the lower planes, and are moved by the Monad through his
Image or Ray; at first so feebly that his influence is well-nigh
imperceptible, later with ever-increasing power.”
Atma-Buddhi-Manas is the Heavenly Man, the Spiritual Man,
and he is the expression of the Monad, whose reflected aspect of Will is
Atma, whose reflected aspect of Wisdom is Buddhi, whose reflected aspect of
Activity is Manas. Hence we may regard the human Atma as the Will-aspect of
the Monad, ensouling an akashic atom; the human Buddhi as the Wisdom-aspect
of the Monad, ensouling an air (divine flame) atom; the human Manas as the
Activity-aspect of the Monad, ensouling a fiery atom. Thus in
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the spiritual Triad, or the Heavenly [62] Man, we
have the three aspects, or energies, of the Monad, embodied in atomic
matter, and this is the “Spirit” in man, the Jivatma or Life-Self, the
separated Self.
It is the germinal Spirit, and in its third aspect the “baby Ego”. It is
identical in nature with the Monad, is the Monad, but is lessened in
force and activity by the veils of matter round it. This lessening of power
must not blind us to the identity of nature. We must ever remember that the
human consciousness is a unit, and that though its manifestations vary,
these variations are only due to the predominance of one or other of its
aspects and to the relative density of the materials in which an aspect is
working. Its manifestations, thus conditioned, vary, but it is itself ever
one.
Such part, then, of the consciousness of the Monad as can
express itself in a fivefold universe enters at first thus into the higher
matter of this universe, embodying itself in an atom of each of the three
[63] higher planes; having thus shone forth and appropriated these atoms
for his own use, the Monad has begun his work; in his own subtle nature he
cannot as yet descend below the anupadaka plane, and he is therefore said to
be in “Silence and Darkness”, unmanifest; but he lives and works in and by
means of these appropriated atoms, which form the garment of his life on
the planes nearest to his own. We may figure this action thus:
[64]
This spiritual Triad, as it is often called,
Atma-Buddi-Manas, the Jivatma, is described as a seed, a germ, of divine
Life, containing the potentialities of its own heavenly Father, its Monad,
to be unfolded into powers in the course of evolution. This is the “manhood”
of the divine Son of the First Logos, animated by the “Godhead”, the Monad -
a mystery truly, but one which is repeated in many forms around us.
And now the nature, which was free in the subtle matter
of his own plane, becomes bound by the denser matter, and his powers of
consciousness cannot as yet function in this blinding veil. He is therein as
a mere germ, an embryo, powerless, senseless, helpless, while the Monad
on his own plane is strong, conscious, capable, so far as his internal
life is concerned; the one is the Monad in Eternity, the other is the Monad
in time and space; the content of the Monad eternal is to become the extent
of the Monad temporal and spatial. This at present embryonic life will
evolve into a complex being, the expression of the [65] Monad on each
plane of the universe. All-powerful internally on his own subtle plane, he
is at first powerless, fettered, helpless, when enwrapped externally in
denser matter, unable to receive through it, or to give out through it,
vibrations. But he will gradually master the matter that at first enslaves
him; slowly, surely, he will mould it for Self-expression; he is aided and
watched over by the all-sustaining and preserving Second Logos, until he
can live in it fully as he lives above, and become in his turn a creative
Logos and bring forth out of himself a universe. The power of creating a
universe is only gained, according to THE WISDOM, by involving within the
Self all that is later to be put forth. A Logos does not create out of
nothing, but evolves all from Himself; and from the experiences we are now
passing through, we are gathering the materials out of which we may build a
system in the future.
But this spiritual Triad, this Jivatma, which is the
Monad in the five-fold universe, cannot himself commence at [66] once
any separate self-directed activity. He cannot gather round himself any
aggregations of matter as yet, but can only abide in his atomic vesture. The
life of the Second Logos is to him as its mother’s womb to the embryo, and
within this the building begins. We may, in very truth, regard this stage of
evolution, in which the Logos shapes, nourishes, and develops the
germinating life, as being, for the Heavenly Man, or truly the Heavenly
Embryo, a period corresponding to the ante-natal life of a human being,
during which he is slowly obtaining a body, which is nourished meanwhile by
the life-currents of the mother and formed out of her substance. Thus also
with the Jivatma, enclosing the life of the Monad; he must await the
building of his body on the lower planes, and he cannot emerge from this
ante-natal life and be “born”, until there is a body builded on the lower
planes. The “birth” takes place at the formation of the causal body, when
the Heavenly Man is manifested as an infant Ego, a true Individuality,
dwelling in a body on the physical plane. A little [67] careful
thought will show how close is the analogy between the evolution of the
Pilgrim and that of each successive rebirth; in the latter case the Jivatma
awaits the formation of the physical body which is building as his
habitation; in the former the spiritual Triads, as a Collectivity, await
the, building of the systemic Quaternary. Until the vehicle on the lowest
plane is ready, all is a preparation for evolution, rather than evolution
itself - it is often termed involution. The evolution of the consciousness
must begin by contacts received by its outermost vehicle; that is, it
must begin on the physical plane. It can only become aware of an outside by
impacts on its own outside; until then it dreams within itself, as the faint
inner thrillings ever outwelling from the Monad cause slight
outward-tending pressures in the Jivatma, like a spring of water beneath the
earth, seeking are outlet.
2. THE WEAVING.
Meanwhile the preparation for the awakening, the giving
of qualities to [68] matter, that which may be likened to the
formation of the tissues of the future body, is done by the life-power of
the Second Logos - the second life-wave, rolling through plane after plane,
imparting its own qualities to that seven-fold proto-matter. The life-wave,
as said above, carries the Jivatmas with it as far as the atomic sub-plane
of the fifth plane, the plane of Fire, of individualised creative power, of
mind. Here they each have already an atom, the manasic, or mental veil of
the Monad, the Logos flooding these and the remaining atoms of the plane
with His life. All these atoms, forming the whole atomic sub-plane, whether
free or attached to Jivatmas, may rightly be termed Monadic Essence; but as
in the course of evolution, presently to be explained, differences arise
between the attached and the non-attached atoms, the term Monadic Essence is
usually employed for the non-attached, while the attached are called, for
reasons which will appear, “permanent atoms”. We may define Monadic Essence
then as atomic matter ensouled by the life of the [69] Second Logos.
It is His clothing for the vivifying and holding together of forms; He is
clad in atomic matter. His own life as Logos, separate from the life of
Atma-Buddhi-Manas in the man, separate from any lives on the plane - though
He supports, permeates, and includes them all - is clothed only in atomic
matter, and it is this which is connoted by the term of Monadic Essence. The
matter of that plane, already by the nature of its atoms
capable of responding by vibrations to active thought-changes, is thrown by
the second life-wave into combinations fit to express thoughts - abstract
thoughts in the subtler matter, concrete thoughts in the coarser. The
combinations of the second and third higher sub-planes constitute the First
Elemental Kingdom; the combinations on the four lower sub-planes constitute
the Second Elemental Kingdom. Matter held in such combinations is called
Elemental Essence, and is susceptible of being shaped into thought-forms.
The student must not confuse this with Monadic Essence; one [70] is
atomic, the other molecular, in constitution.
The second life-wave then rolls on into the sixth plane,
the plane of Water, or individualised sensation, of desire. The
before-mentioned Devas link the Jivatma - attached, or permanent, units of
the fifth plane to a corresponding number of atoms on the sixth plane, and
the Second Logos floods these and the remaining atoms with His own life -
these atoms thus becoming Monadic Essence as explained above. The life-wave
passes onwards, forming on each sub-plane the combinations fit to express
sensations. These combinations constitute the Third Elemental Kingdom, and
the matter held in such combination is called Elemental Essence, as before,
and on this sixth plane is susceptible of being shaped into desire-forms.
Elemental Essence is thus seen to consist of aggregations
of matter on each of the six non-atomic sub-planes of the mental and desire
planes, aggregations which do not themselves serve as forms for any entity
to inhabit, but as the [71] materials out of which such forms may be
built.
The life-wave then rolls on into the seventh plane, the
plane of Earth, of individualised activities, of actions. As before the
Jivatma-attached, or permanent, atoms of the sixth plane are linked to a
corresponding number on the seventh plane, and the Second Logos floods these
and the remaining atoms with His own life - all these atoms thus becoming
Monadic Essence. The life-wave again passes onwards, forming on each
sub-plane combinations fitted to constitute physical bodies, the future
chemical elements, as they are called on the three lower sub-planes.
Looking at this work of the second life wave as a whole,
we see that its downward sweep is concerned with what may fairly be called
the making of primary tissues, out of which hereafter subtle and dense
bodies are to be formed. Well has it been called in some ancient scriptures
a “weaving”, for such it literally is. The materials prepared by the Third
Logos are woven by the Second Logos into threads [72] and into cloths
of which future garments the subtle and dense bodies - will be made. As a
man may take separate threads of flax, cotton, silk-themselves combinations
of a simpler kind - and weave these into linens, into cotton or silk cloth,
these cloths in turn to be shaped into garments by cutting and stitching, so
does the second Logos weave the matter-threads, weave these again into
tissues, and then shape them into forms. He is the Eternal Weaver, while we
might think of the Third Logos as the Eternal Chemist. The latter works in
nature as in a laboratory, the former as in a manufactory. These similes,
materialistic as they are, are not to be despised, for they are crutches to
aid our limping attempts to understand.
This “weaving” gives to matter its characteristics, as
the characteristics of the thread differ from those of the raw material, as
the characteristics of the cloth differ from those of the threads. The Logos
weaves the two kinds of cloth of manasic matter, of mind-stuff, and out of
these will be made later the causal and the mental [73] bodies. He
weaves the cloth of astral matter, of desire-stuff, and out of this will be
made later the desire body. That is to say, that the combinations of matter
formed and held together by the second life-wave have the characteristics
which will act on the Monad when he comes into touch with others, and will
enable him to act on them. So will he be able to receive all kinds of
vibrations, mental, sensory, etc. The characteristics depend on the nature
of the aggregations. There are seven great types, fixed by the nature of the
atom, and within these innumerable sub-types. All this goes to the making of
the materials of the mechanism of consciousness, which will be conditioned
by all these textures, colourings, densities.
In this downward sweep of the life-wave through the
fifth, sixth, and seventh planes, downward till the densest matter is
reached, and the wave turns at that point to begin its sweep upwards, we
must think, then, of its work as that of forming combinations which show
qualities, and so we sometimes speak of this work as the giving of
qualities. In the upward sweep we shall [74] find that bodies are
built out of the matter thus prepared. But before we study the shaping of
these, we must consider the seven-fold division of this life-wave in its
descent, and the coming forth of the “Shining Ones”, the “Devas”, the
“Angels”, the “Elementals”, that belong also to this downward sweep. These
are the “Minor Gods” of whom Plato speaks, from whom man derives his
perishable bodies.
3. THE SEVEN STREAMS.
The question is constantly asked: Why this continual play
by Theosophists upon the number seven? We speak of it as the “root-number of
our system”, and there is one obvious reason why this number should play an
active part in the grouping of things, since we are concerned with the
triplicities previously mentioned and explained. A triad naturally produces
a septenate by its own internal relations, since its three factors can group
themselves in seven ways and no more. We have spoken of [75] matter,
outside the limits of a universe, as having the three qualities of matter -
inertia, mobility, and rhythm - in a state of equilibrium. When the life of
the Logos causes motion, we have at once the possibility of seven groups,
for in any given atom, or group of atoms, one or other of these qualities
may be more strongly energised than the others, and thus a predominant
quality will be shown forth. We may thus have three groups, in one of which
inertia will predominate, in mobility, in a third rhythm. Each of these,
again, subdivides, according to the predominance in it of one or other of
the remaining two qualities: thus in one of the two inertia groups, mobility
may predominate over rhythm, and in the other rhythm over mobility, and so
with the other two groups of mobility and rhythm. Hence arise the well-known
types, classified according to the predominant quality, usually designated
by their Samskrit terms, satvic, rajasic, and tamasic, rhythmical, mobile,
and inert, and we have satvic, rajasic, and tamasic foods, [76]
animals, men, etc.. And we obtain seven groups in all: six subdivisions of
the three, and a seventh in which the three qualities are equally active.
[The varieties of type are simply intended to mark in each triad the
relative energies of the qualities.]
The Life of the Logos, which is to flow into this matter,
itself manifests in seven streams, or rays.
These arise similarly out of the three Aspects of
Consciousness present in Him, as in all consciousnesses, since all are
manifestations of the Universal SELF. These are Bliss, or Ichchha, Will;
Cognition, or Jnanam, Wisdom; [77] Existence, or Kriya, Activity. So
we have the seven streams or rays, of Logic life:
All things may be regarded as grouped under these seven
headings, the seven streams of Logic life composing the second life-wave,
and we may think of it as flowing through the planes, descending through
them; so that, if we draw the planes horizontally, the life-wave would sweep
vertically downwards through them. Moreover in each stream there will be
seven primary sub-divisions, according to the type of matter concerned, and
within these secondary sub-divisions, according to the proportions of the
qualities within each type, and so on and on in [78] innumerable
variations. Into these we need not enter. It is enough to notice the seven
types of matter and the seven types of consciousnesses. The seven streams of
Logic life show out as the seven types of consciousnesses, and within each
of these the seven types of matter-combinations are found. There are to be
seen seven distinct types in each of the three Elemental Kingdoms and on the
physical plane. Mme. Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine, dealing with
man, quotes from the stanzas of the Book of Dzyan, the fact that
there were: “Seven of Them [Creators] each on His lot”, forming the seven
types of men, and these subdivided: “Seven times seven shadows of future
men were born”.
Here is the root of the differing temperaments of men.
4. THE SHINING ONES.
We have now to consider another result of the
downward-sweeping Life-Wave. We have seen that it gives qualities to [79]
aggregations of matter on the fifth and sixth planes, and that we have
in the First Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe abstract thoughts;
in the Second Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe concrete thoughts;
in the Third Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe desires. But in
addition to imparting qualities to aggregations of matter, the Second Logos
gives forth, during this stage of His descent, evolved beings, at various
stages of development, who form the normal and typical inhabitants of these
three kingdoms. These beings have been brought over by the Logos from a
preceding evolution, and are sent forth from the treasure-house of His
life, to inhabit the plane for which their development fits them; and to
cooperate with Him, and later with man, in the working-out of His scheme of
evolution. They have received various names in the various religions, but
all religions recognise the fact of their existence and of their work. The
Samskrit name Devas - the Shining Ones - is the most general, and aptly
describes the most marked characteristic of their [80] appearance, a
brilliant luminous radiance.
The Hebrew, Christian, and Muhammadan religions call them Archangels and
Angels. The Theosophist - to avoid sectarian connotations - names them,
after their habitat, Elementals; and this title has the further advantage
that it reminds the student of their connection with the five “Elements” of
the ancient world: Ether, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. For there are similar
beings of a higher type on the atmic and buddhic planes, as well as the Fire
and Water Elementals of the mental and desire planes, and the ethereal
Elementals of the physical. These beings have bodies formed out of the
elemental essence of the kingdom to which they belong, flashing many-hued
bodies, changing form at the will of the indwelling entity. They form a vast
host, ever actively at work, labouring at the elemental essence to improve
its [81] quality, taking it to form their own bodies, throwing it off
and taking other portions of it, to render it more responsive; they are also
constantly busied in the shaping of forms, in aiding human Egos on the way
to re-incarnation in building their new bodies, bringing materials of the
needed kind and helping in its arrangements. The less advanced the Ego the
greater the directive work of the Deva; with animals they do almost all the
work, and practically all with vegetables and minerals. They are the active
agents in the work of the Logos, carrying out all the details of His
world-plan, and aiding the countless evolving lives to find the materials
they need for their clothing. All antiquity recognised the indispensable
work they do in the worlds, and China, Egypt, India, Persia, Greece, Rome,
tell the same story. The belief in the higher of them is not only found in
all religions, but memories of those of the desire and of the ethereal
physical plane linger on in folklore, in stories of “Nature-spirits”,
“Fairies”, “Gnomes”, “Trolls”, and under many other names, memories of days
when men were [82] less deeply enwrapped in material interests, and
more sensitive to the influences that played upon them from the subtler
worlds. This concentration on material interests, necessary for evolution,
has shut out the working of the Elementals from human waking consciousness;
but this does not, of course, stop their working, though often rendering it
less effective on the physical plane.
At the stage we are considering, however, all this work,
except that of the improvement of the elemental essence, lay in the far
future, but the Shining Ones laboured diligently at that improvement.
There was thus a vast work of preparation accomplished
before anything in the way of physical forms, such as we should recognise,
could appear; a vast labour at the Form side of things before embodied
consciousnesses, save that of the Logos and His Shining Ones, could do
anything at all. That which was to be human consciousness at this point was
a seed, sown on the higher planes, unconscious of all without it. Under the
impelling warmth of the Logic life, it sends out [83] a tiny rootlet
downwards, which pushes its way into the lower planes, blindly,
unconsciously, and this rootlet must form cur next object of study. [84]
CHAPTER I V.
THE PERMANENT ATOM.
1. THE ATTACHING OF THE ATOMS.
LET us consider the spiritual Triad, the tri-atomic
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Jivatma, the seed of consciousness, within which the
warmth of the stream of Logic life, which surrounds it, is causing faint
thrillings of responsive life. These are internal thrillings, preparatory to
external activities. After long preparation, a tiny thread, like a minute
rootlet, appears, proceeding from the tri-atomic molecule ensheathing
consciousness, a golden-coloured thread of life sheathed in buddhic matter;
countless such threads appear from the countless Jivatmas, waving vaguely at
first in the seven great streams of life, and then becoming anchored - if
the expression may be [85] permitted - by attachment to a single
molecule or unit, on the fourth mental sub-plane. This anchoring - like the
previous one to the three higher atoms, and like the later ones to the
astral and physical atoms - is brought about by the action of the Shining
Ones. Round this attached unit gather temporary aggregations of elemental
essence of the Second Kingdom, scattering and regathering, over and over
again, ever with the attached unit as centre. This stable centre, serving
for an endless succession of changing complex forms, is gradually awakened
by the vibrations of these forms into faint responses, these again thrilling
feebly upwards to the seed of consciousness, and producing therein vaguest
internal movements. It cannot be said that each centre has always round it a
form of its own; for one aggregation of elemental essence may have several,
or very many, of these centres within it, or, again, may have only one, or
none. Thus, with inconceivable slowness, these attached units become
possessors of certain qualities; that is, acquire the power of [86]
vibrating in certain ways, which are connected with thinking and will
hereafter make thoughts possible. The Shining Ones of the Second Elemental
Kingdom work upon them also, directing upon them the vibrations to which
they gradually begin to respond, and surrounding them with the elemental
essence thrown off from their own bodies.
Moreover, each of the seven typical groups is separated from the others by a
delicate wall of monadic essence (atomic matter ensouled by the life of the
Second Logos), the beginning of the wall of the future Group-Soul.
This whole process is repeated, when the Third Elemental
Kingdom has been formed. The tiny thread of buddhic ensheathed life, with
its attached mental unit, now pushes outwards to the desire-plane, and
attaches itself to a single astral atom, adding this to itself, as its
stable centre on the desire-plane. Round this now gather temporary
aggregations of elemental essence of the Third Kingdom, scattering and
regathering as before. [87] Similar results follow, as the countless
succession of forms ensheathes this stable centre, awaking it to similarly
faint responses, which in their turn thrill feebly upwards to the seed of
consciousness, producing therein, once more, vaguest internal movements.
Thus, again, these attached atoms become slowly possessed of certain
qualities; that is, acquire the power of vibrating in certain ways, which
are connected with sensation, and will hereafter make sensations possible.
Here also the Shining Ones of the Third Elemental Kingdom co-operate in the
work, using their more highly developed powers of vibration to produce
sympathetically in these undeveloped atoms the power of response, and, as
before, giving them of their own substance. The separating wall of each of
the seven groups acquires a second layer, formed of the monadic essence of
the desire-plane, thus approaching a stage nearer to the wall of the future
Group-Soul.
Once more is the process repeated, when the great wave
has travelled onwards into the physical plane. The tiny thread of [88]
buddhic-ensheathed life, with its attached mental and desire units,
pushes outwards once more, and annexes a physical atom, adding this to
itself as its stable centre on the physical plane. Round this gather
ethereal molecules, but the heavier physical matter is more coherent than
the subtler matter of the higher planes, and a much longer term of life may
be observed. Then - as are formed the ethereal types of the proto-metals,
and later proto-metals, metals, non-metallic elements, and minerals - the
Shining Ones of the Ethereal Physical Kingdom submerge these attached atoms
in their sheaths of ether into the one of the seven ethereal types to which
they respectively belong, and they begin their long physical evolution.
Before we can follow this further we must consider Group-Souls, which on the
atomic sub-plane receive their third enveloping layer. But it will be well
to pause for a while on the nature and the function of these permanent
atoms, the tri-units, or triads, which are as a reflexion on the lower
planes of the spiritual Triads on the higher, and each of which is attached
to [89] a spiritual Triad, its Jivatma. Each triad consists of a
physical atom, an astral atom, and a mental unit, permanently attached by a
thread of buddhic matter to a spiritual Triad. That thread has sometimes
been called the Sutratma, the Thread-Self, because the permanent particles
are threaded on it as “beads on a string”.
We may again resort to a diagram, showing the relation.
[90]
2. THE WEB OF LIFE.
It has been said that the connexion with the spiritual
Triad is through buddhic matter, and this is indicated in the diagram by the
dotted line which connects the atoms coming down from the line in the
buddhic plane, and not from the manasic atom. It is of buddhic matter that
is spun the marvellous web of life which supports and vivifies all our
bodies. If the bodies be looked at with buddhic vision, they all disappear,
and in their places is seen a shimmering golden web of inconceivable
fineness and delicate beauty, a tracery of all their parts, in a network
with minute meshes. This is formed of buddhic matter, and within these
meshes the coarser atoms are built together. Closer inspection shows that
the whole network is formed of a single thread, which is a prolongation of
the Sutratma. During the antenatal life of the babe, this thread grows out
from the permanent physical atom and branches out in every direction, this
growth continuing until the physical body is full grown; during physical
life the prana, the life-[91]breath, plays ever along it, following
all its branches and meshes; at death it is withdrawn, leaving the particles
of the body to scatter; it may be watched, slowly disentangling itself from
the dense physical matter, the life-breath accompanying it, and drawing
itself together in the heart round the permanent atom; as it withdraws, the
deserted limbs grow cold - its absence makes the “death-chill”; the
golden-violet flame of the life-breath is seen shining around it in the
heart, and the flame, and the golden life-web, and the permanent atom rise
along the secondary Sushumna-nadi
to the head, into the third ventricle of the brain; the eyes glaze, as the
life-web draws itself away, and the whole of it is collected round the
permanent atom in the third ventricle; then the whole rises slowly to the
point of junction of the parietal and occipital sutures, and leaves the
physical body - [92] dead. It thus surrounds the permanent atom like
a golden shell - recalling the closely woven cocoon of the silk-worm - to
remain enshrouding it till the building of a new physical body again demands
its unfolding. The same procedure is followed with the astral and mental
particles, so that, when these bodies have disintegrated, the lower triad
may be seen as a brilliantly scintillating nucleus within the causal body,
an appearance which had been noted, long ere closer observation revealed its
significance.
3. THE CHOOSING OF THE PERMANENT ATOMS.
Let us return to the original appropriation by the Monad
of the permanent atoms of the three higher planes, and seek to understand
something of their use, of the object of their appropriation; the same
principles apply to the permanent atoms of each plane.
In the first place, it will be remembered that the matter
of each plane shows out seven main types, varying according to the dominance
of one or other of the [93] three great attributes of matter:
inertia, mobility, and rhythm. Hence the permanent atoms may be chosen out
of any one of these types, but it appears that, by a single Monad, they are
all chosen out of the same type. It appears, further, that while the actual
attachment of the permanent atoms to the life-thread on the three higher
planes is the work of the Hierarchies before spoken of, the choice which
directs the appropriation is made by the Monad himself. He himself belongs
to one or other of the seven groups of Life already spoken of; at the head
of each of these groups stands a Planetary Logos, who “colours” the whole,
and the Monads are grouped by these colourings, each “being coloured by his
‘Father-Star’”.
This is the first great determining characteristic of each of us, our
fundamental “colour”, or “key-note”, or “temperament”. The Monad may choose
to use his new pilgrimage for the strengthening and increasing of this
special characteristic; if so, the Hierarchies will attach to his
life-thread atoms belonging [94] to the group in matter corresponding
to his life-group. This choice would result in the secondary “colour”, or
“keynote”, or “temperament”, emphasising and strengthening the first, and,
in the later evolution, the powers and the weaknesses of that doubled
temperament would show themselves with great force. Or, the Monad may choose
to use his new pilgrimage for the unfolding of another aspect of his nature;
then the Hierarchies will attach to his life-thread atoms belonging to the
material group corresponding to another life-group, that in which the aspect
he wills to develop is predominant. This choice would result in the
secondary “colour”, or “key-note”, or “temperament”, modifying the first,
with corresponding results in the later evolution. This latter choice is
obviously by far the more frequent, and it tends to a greater complexity of
character, especially in the final stages of human evolution, when the
influence of the Monad makes itself felt more strongly.
As said above, it appears that all the permanent atoms
are taken from the same [95] material group, so that those of the
lower triad correspond with those of the higher; but on the lower planes the
influence of these atoms in determining the type of materials used in the
bodies of which they are the generating centres - the question to which we
must now turn our attention - is very much limited and interfered with by
other causes. On the higher planes the bodies are relatively permanent, when
once found, and reproduce definitely the keynote of their permanent atoms,
however enriched that note may be by overtones, ever increasing in subtlety
of harmony. But on the lower planes, while the keynote of the permanent
atoms will be the same, various other causes come in to determine the choice
of materials for the bodies, as will be better seen presently.
4. THE USE OF THE PERMANENT ATOMS.
To put this use into a phrase: The use of the permanent
atoms is to preserve within themselves, as vibratory powers, the results of
all the experiences through [96] which they have passed. It will
perhaps be best to take the physical atom as an illustration, since this is
susceptible of easier explanation than those on higher planes.
A physical impact of any kind will cause vibrations
corresponding to its own in the physical body it contacts; these may be
local or general, according to the nature and force of the impact. But
whether local or general, they will reach the permanent physical atom,
transmitted by the web of life in all cases, and in violent impacts by mere
concussion also. This vibration, forced on the atom from outside, becomes a
vibratory power in the atom - a tendency therein to repeat the vibration.
Through the whole life of the body, innumerable impacts strike it; not one
but leaves its mark on the permanent atom; rot one but leaves it with a new
possibility of vibration. All the results of physical experiences remain
stored up in this permanent atom, as powers of vibrating. At the end of a
physical life, this permanent atom has thus stored up innumerable vibratory
powers; that is, has [97] learned to respond in countless ways to the
external world, to reproduce in itself the vibrations imposed upon it by
surrounding objects. The physical body disintegrates at death; its particles
scatter, all carrying with them the result of the experiences through which
they have passed - as indeed all particles of our bodies are ever doing day
by day, in their ceaseless dyings out of one body and ceaseless birthings
into another. But the physical permanent atom remains; it is the only atom
that has passed through all the experiences of the ever-changing
conglomerations we call our body, and it has acquired all the results of all
those experiences. Wrapped in its golden cocoon, it sleeps through the long
years during which the Jivatma that owns it is living through other
experiences in other worlds. By these it remains unaffected, being incapable
of responding to them, and it sleeps through its long night in undisturbed
repose.
When the time for reincarnation comes, [98] and
the presence of the permanent atom renders possible the fertilisation of the
ovum from which the new body is to grow,
its keynote sounds out, and is one of the forces which guide the ethereal
builder, the elemental charged with the building of the physical body, to
choose the materials suitable for his work, for he can use none that cannot
be to some extent attuned to the permanent atom. But it is only one
of the forces; the karma of past lives, mental, emotional, and in relation
to others, demands materials capable of the most varied expressions; out of
that karma, the Lords of Karma have chosen such as is congruous, i.e.,
such as can be expressed through a body of a particular material group;
this congruous mass of karma determines the material group, over-riding the
permanent atom, and out of that group are chosen by the elemental such
materials as can vibrate in [99] harmony with the permanent atom, or
in discords not disruptive in their violence. Hence, as said, the permanent
atom is only one of the forces in determining the third “colour”, or
“keynote”, or “temperament”, which characterises each of us. According to
this temperament will be the time of the birth of the body; it must
be born into the world at a time when the physical planetary influences are
suitable to its third temperament, and it thus is born “under its”
astrological “Star”. Needless to say, it is not the Star that imposes the
temperament, but the temperament that fixes the epoch of birth under that
Star. But herein lies the explanation of the correspondences between Stars
- Star-Angels, that is to say - and characters, and the usefulness for
educational purposes of a skilfully and carefully drawn horoscope, as a
guide to the personal temperament of a child.
That such complicated results, capable of impressing
their peculiarities on surrounding matter, can exist in such minute space as
an atom may, indeed, appear inconceivable - yet so it is. And it is [100]
worthy notice that ordinary science countenances a similar idea, since
the infinitesimal biophors in the germinal cell of Weismann are supposed to
thus carry on to the offspring the characteristics of his line of
progenitors. While the one brings to the body its physical peculiarities
from its ancestors, the other supplies those which have been acquired by the
evolving man during his own evolution. H. P. Blavatsky has put this very
clearly:
“The German embryologist-philosopher - stepping over the
heads of the Greek Hippocrates and Aristotle, right back into the teachings
of the old Aryans - shows one infinitesimal cell, out of millions of others
at work in the formation of an organism, alone and unaided determining, by
means of constant segmentation and multiplication, the correct image of the
future man, or animal, in its physical, mental, and psychic characteristics.
Complete the physical plasm, mentioned above, the
‘germinal cell’ of man with all its material potentialities, with the
‘spiritual plasm’ so to say, or the fluid that contains the five lower
principles of [101] the six-principled Dhyani - and you have the
secret, if you are spiritual enough to understand it.”
A little study of physical heredity in the light of
Weismann’s teachings will be sufficient to convince the student of the
possibilities of such a body as the permanent atom. A man reproduces the
features of a long-past ancestor, shows out a physical peculiarity that
characterised a forbear several centuries ago. We can trace the Stuart nose
through a long series of portraits, and innumerable cases of such
resemblances can be found. Why then should there be anything extraordinary
in the idea that an atom should gather within itself not biophors, as in the
germinal cell, but tendencies to repeat innumerable vibrations already
practised. No spatial difficulty arises, any more than in the case of a
string, from which numerous notes can be drawn by bowing it at different
points, each note containing numerous overtones. We must not think of the
minute space of an atom as crowded with innumerable vibrating bodies, but of
a [102] limited number of bodies, each capable of setting up
innumerable vibrations.
Truly, however, even the spatial difficulty is illusory,
for there are no limits to the minute any more than to the great. Modern
science now sees in the atom a system of revolving worlds, each world in its
own orbit, the whole resembling a solar system. The master of illusion,
Space, like his brother master, Time, cannot here daunt us. There is no
limit of the possibilities of sub-division in thought, and hence none in
the thought-expression we call matter.
The normal number of spirillae at work in the permanent
atoms in this Round is four; as in the ordinary unattached atoms of matter
in general at this stage of evolution. But let us take the permanent atom in
the body of a very highly evolved man, a man far in advance of his fellows.
In such a case we may find the permanent atom showing five spirillae at
work, and may seek to learn the bearing of this fact on the general
materials of his body. In ante-natal life, the presence of this
five-spirillae-permanent-atom would have [103] caused the building
elemental to select among his materials any similar atoms that were
available. For the most part, he would be reduced to the use of any he could
find, which had been in temporary connexion with any body the centre of
which was a five-spirillae-permanent-atom. Its presence would have tended
to arouse in them a corresponding activity, especially - perhaps only - if
they had formed part of the brain or nerves of the highly developed tenant
of the body. The fifth spirilla would have become more or less active in
them, and although it would have dropped back into inactivity after leaving
such a body, its temporary activity would have predisposed it to respond
more readily in the future to the current of monadic life. Such atoms, then,
would be secured by the elemental for his work, as far as possible. He would
also, should opportunity serve, appropriate from the paternal or maternal
bodies, if they were of a high order, any such atoms as he could secure, and
build them into his charge. After birth, and throughout life, such a body
would attract to itself any [104] similar atoms which came within its
magnetic field. Such a body, in the company of highly evolved persons,
would profit to an exceptional degree by the propinquity, appropriating any
five-spirillae-atoms which were present in the shower of particles flung
off from their bodies, and thus gaining physically, as well as mentally and
morally, from their company.
The permanent astral atom bears exactly the same relation
to the astral body as that borne by the physical permanent atom to the
physical body. At the end of the life in kamaloka – purgatory - the golden
life-web withdraws from the astral body, leaving it to disintegrate, as its
physical comrade had previously done, and enwraps the astral permanent atom
for its long sleep. A similar relation is borne to the mental body by the
permanent mental particle during physical, astral, and mental life; during
the early stages of human evolution little improvement is made in the mental
permanent unit by the brief devachanic lives, not only on account of their
brevity, but because the feeble thought-forms produced by the [105]
undeveloped intelligence affect very slightly the permanent unit. But when
thought-power is more highly evolved, the devachanic life is a time of
great improvement, and innumerable vibratory energies are stored up, and
show their value when the time arrives for the building of a new mental body
for the next cycle of reincarnation. At the close of the mental life in
devachan, the golden web withdraws from the mental body, leaving it also to
disintegrate, while it enwraps the mental particle; and the lower triad of
permanent atoms alone remains as the representative of the three lower
bodies. These are stored up, as before said, as a radiant nucleus-like
particle within the causal body. They are thus all that remains to the Ego
of his bodies in the lower worlds, when that cycle of experience is
completed, as they were his means of communication with the lower planes
during the life of those bodies.
When comes the period for re-birth, a thrill of life from
the Ego arouses the mental unit; the life-web begins to unfold again, and,
the vibrating unit acts as a [106] magnet, drawing towards itself
materials with vibratory powers resembling, or accordant with, its own. The
Shining Ones of the Second Elemental Kingdom bring such materials within its
reach; in the earlier stages of evolution they shape the matter into a loose
cloud around the permanent unit, but as evolution goes on the Ego exercises
over the shaping an ever-increasing influence. When the mental body is
partially formed, the life-thrill awakens the astral atom, and the same
procedure is followed. Finally the life-touch reaches the physical atom, and
it acts in the way already described on pp. 98-100.
A questioner sometimes asks: How can these permanent
atoms be stored up within the causal body, without losing their physical,
astral, and mental natures, since the causal body exists on a higher plane,
where the physical, as physical, cannot be? Such a querent is forgetting,
for a moment, that all the planes are interpenetrating, and that it is no
more difficult for the causal body to encircle the triad of the lower
planes, than for it to encircle the [107] hundreds of millions of
atoms that form the mental, astral, and physical bodies belonging to it
during a period of earth-life. The triad forms a minute particle within the
causal body; each constituent part of it belongs to its own plane, but, as
the planes have meeting points everywhere, no difficulty arises in the
necessary juxtaposition. We are all on all planes at all times.
5. MONADIC ACTION ON THE PERMANENT ATOMS.
We may here enquire: Is there anything that can be
properly termed monadic action - the action of the Monad on the anupadaka
plane - on the permanent atom. Of direct action there is none, nor can there
be until the germinal spiritual Triad has reached a high stage of
evolution; indirect action, that is action on the spiritual Triad, which in
turn acts on the lower, there is continually. But for all practical purposes
we may consider it as the action of the spiritual Triad, which, as we have
seen, is the Monad veiled [108] in matter denser than that of his
native plane.
The spiritual Triad is drawing most of his energy, and
all the directive capacity of that energy, from the Second Logos, bathed as
he is in that stream of Life. What may be called his own special activity
does not concern itself with all the shaping and building activity of the
Second Life-Wave, but is directed to the evolution of the atom itself, in
association with the Third Logos. This energy from the spiritual Triad
confines itself to the atomic sub-planes, and, until the fourth Round,
appears to spend itself chiefly on the permanent atoms. It is directed first
to the shaping and then to the vivifying of the spirillae which form the
wall of the atom. The vortex, which is the atom, is the life of the Third
Logos; but the wall of the spirillae is gradually formed on the external
surface of this vortex during the descent of the Second Logos, not vivified
by Him, but faintly traced out over the surface of this revolving vortex of
life. They remain - so far as the Second Logos is concerned - merely as
these [109] filmy unused channels, but presently, as the life of the
Monad flows down, it plays into the first of these channels, vivifying that
channel and turning it into a working part of the atom. This goes on through
the successive Rounds, and by the time we reach the fourth Round we have
four distinct streams of life from each Monad, circulating through four sets
of spirillae in his own permanent atoms. Now as the Monad works in the
permanent atom, and it is put forward as the nucleus of a body, he begins
to work similarly in the atoms that are drawn round that permanent atom, and
vivifies in turn their spirillae; but that is temporary vivification, and
not continuous as in the case of the permanent atom. He thus brings into
activity these faint shadowy films, formed by the Second Life-Wave, and,
when the life of the body is broken up, the atoms thus stimulated return to
the great mass of atomic matter, improved and worked upon by the life which,
during their connexion with the permanent atom, has been vivifying them.
The channels, being thus [110] developed, are more capable of easily
receiving another such life-stream, as they enter another body, and therein
come into relation with a permanent atom belonging to some other Monad. Thus
this work continually goes on, on the physical and astral planes, and in the
particle of mental matter on the mental plane, improving the materials with
which the Monads are permanently or temporarily connected, and this
evolution of atoms is constantly going on under the influence of the Monads.
The permanent atoms evolve more rapidly, because of their continuity of
connexion with the Monad, while the others profit by their repeated
temporary association with the permanent atoms.
During the first Round of the terrene Chain, the first
set of spirillae of the physical plane atoms becomes thus vivified by the
life of the Monad flowing through the spiritual Triad. This is the set of
spirillae used by the pranic, or life-breath, currents affecting the dense
part of the physical body. Similarly in the second Round the second set of
spirillae becomes active, and herein play [111] the pranic currents
connected with the etheric double. During these two Rounds nothing can be
found, in connexion with any form, that can be called sensations of pleasure
and pain. During the third Round, the third set of spirillae becomes
vivified, and here first appears what is called sensibility; for, through
these spirillae, kamic or desire energy can affect the physical body, the
kamic prana can play in them, and thus bring the physical into direct
communication with the astral. During the fourth Round, the fourth set of
spirillae becomes vivified, and the kama-manasic prana plays in them, and
makes them fit to be used for the building of a brain which is to act as the
instrument for thought.
When a person passes out of the normal, and takes up the
abnormal human evolution involved in preparing for and entering the Path
which lies beyond normal evolution, he has then, in connexion with his
permanent atoms, a task of exceeding difficulty. He must vivify more sets of
spirillae than are vivified in the humanity of his time. [112] Four
sets are already at his service, as a fourth Round man. He begins to vivify
a fifth, and thus to bring into manifestation the fifth Round atom while
still working in a fourth Round body. It is to this that allusion is made in
some early theosophical books, in which “Fifth Rounders” and “Sixth
Rounders” are spoken of as appearing in our present humanity. Those thus
designated have evolved the fifth and sixth set of spirillae in their
permanent atoms, thus obtaining a better instrument for the use of their
highly developed consciousness. The change is brought about by certain yoga
practices in the use of which great caution is required, lest injury should
be inflicted on the brain in which this work is being carried on, and
further progress along that particular line stopped during the present
incarnation. [113]
CHAPTER V.
GROUP-SOULS.
1. THE MEANING OF THE TERM.
SPEAKING generally, a Group-Soul is a collection of
permanent triads, in a triple envelope of monadic essence. This description
is true of all Group-Souls functioning on the physical plane, but gives no
idea of the extreme complexity of the subject of Group-Souls. For they
divide and sub-divide constantly, the contents of each division and
sub-division decreasing in number, as evolution goes on, until at last a
“Group-Soul” encloses but a single triad, to which it may continue for many
births to discharge the protective and nutrient functions of a Group-Soul,
while no longer technically describable as one, the “Group” having separated
off into its constituent parts. [114]
Seven Group-Souls are to be seen, functioning on the
physical plane, before any forms appear. They first show themselves as
vague, filmy forms, one in each stream of the Second Life-Wave, on the
mental plane, becoming more clearly outlined on the astral plane, and yet
more so on the physical. They float in the great ocean of matter as balloons
might float in the sea. Observing them more closely, we see three separate
layers of matter, forming an envelope, which contains innumerable triads.
Before any inmineralisation has taken place, no golden life-web is, of
course, visible around these; only the radiant golden threads which connect
them with their parent Jivatmas are to be seen, shining with that strange
lustre which belongs to their birth-plane. The innermost of these three
layers consists of physical monadic essence; that is, the layer is composed
of atoms of the physical plane, ensouled with the life of the Second Logos.
At first sight, these innermost layers appear to be identical in the seven
Group-Souls; but closer observation reveals that each layer is formed of
atoms [115] from only one of the seven Matter-groups before
described. Each Group-Soul, therefore, differs in material constitution from
all the rest, and the contained triads in each belong to the same
matter-group. The second layer of the Group-Soul envelope is composed of
astral monadic essence, belonging to the same matter-group as the first;
and the third of units of the fourth sub-plane of mental matter of the same
type. This triple envelope is the protector and nourisher of the triads
contained within it, veritable embryos, incapable, as yet, of separate
independent activity.
The seven Group-Souls soon multiply, division going on
continually with the multiplication of distinct sub-types, as the immediate
forerunners of the chemical elements appear, to be followed by the elements
themselves, and the minerals formed from them. The laws of space, for
instance - apart from the specialisation of the contents of the Group-Soul,
the permanent triads - may lead to a division of it.
Thus a vein of gold in Australia may [116] lead to
the inmineralisation of many such triads within a single envelope, while the
laying down of another vein in a distant place, say the Rocky Mountains, may
lead to the division of this envelope, and the transfer of part of its
contents to America in their own envelope. But the more important causes
which bring about sub-divisions will be explained in the course of our
study. The Group-Soul and its contents divide by fission, like an ordinary
cell - one becomes two, two four, and so on. All the triads have to pass
through the mineral kingdom, the place in which matter reaches its grossest
form, and the place where the great wave reaches the limit of its descent,
and turns to begin its upward climbing. Here it is that physical
consciousness must awaken; life must now turn definitely outwards, and
recognise contacts with other lives in an external world.
Now the evolution of each being in these early stages
depends chiefly on the cherishing life of the Logos, and partly on the
co-operating guidance of the Shining Ones, and partly on its own [117]
blind pressure against the limits of its enclosing form. I have compared
the evolution through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms to an
ante-natal period, and the resemblance is exact. As the child is nourished
by the life-streams of the mother, so does the protective envelope of the
Group-Soul nourish the lives within it, receiving and distributing the
experiences gathered in. The circulating life is the life of the parent; the
young plants, the young animals, the young human beings, are not ready for
independent life as yet, but must draw nourishment from the parent. And so
these germinating lives in the mineral kingdom are nourished by the
Group-Souls, by the envelopes of monadic essence, thrilling with Logic life.
A very fair picture of this stage may be seen in the carpel of a plant, in
which the ovules gradually appear, becoming more and more independent.
For the sake of a clear conception, we may glance rapidly
forward over the changes through which the Group-Soul passes, as its
contents evolve, before going [118] into details. During the mineral
evolution, the habitat of the Group-Soul may be said to be that of its
densest envelope, the physical; its most active working is on the physical
plane. As its contents pass onwards into the vegetable kingdom, and ascend
through it, the physical envelope slowly disappears - as though absorbed by
the contents for the strengthening of their own etheric bodies - and its
activity is transferred to the astral plane, to the nourishing of the astral
bodies of the contained triads. As these develop yet further and pass into
the animal kingdom, the astral envelope is similarly absorbed, and the
activity of the Group-Soul is transferred to the mental plane, and it
nourishes the inchoate mental bodies and shapes them gradually into less
vagueness of outline. When the Group-Soul contains but a single triad, and
has nourished this into readiness for the reception of the third outpouring,
what is left of it disintegrates into matter of the third sub-plane, and
becomes a constituent part of the causal body formed by the downpouring from
above meeting the upward-drawn column [119] from below - to use the
graphic waterspout simile. Then is the re-incarnating Ego born into
independent manifestation; the guarded ante-natal life is over.
2. THE DIVISION OF THE GROUP-SOUL.
It is on the physical plane that consciousness must
first evolve into Self-consciousness, must become aware of an external world
that makes impacts upon it, and must learn to refer those impacts to an
external world, and to realise as its own the changes which it undergoes in
consequence of those impacts. By prolonged experiences it will learn to
identify with itself the feeling of pleasure or pain that follows the
impact, and to regard as not itself that which touches its external surface.
It will thus make its first rough distinction of “Not-I” and “I”. As
experience increases, the “I” will retreat ever inwards, and one veil of
matter after another will be relegated outwards as belonging to the “Not-I”;
but while its connotations change, this fundamental distinction [120]
between subject and object will ever remain. “I” is the willing, thinking,
acting consciousness; while the “Not-I” is all as to which it wills, about
which it thinks, and on which it acts. We shall have to consider later the
way in which consciousness becomes Self-consciousness, but at present we
are concerned only with its expression in forms, and the part played by the
forms.
This consciousness awakens on the physical plane, and its
expression is the permanent atom. In this it lies sleeping: “It sleeps in
the mineral”; and therein some awakening into lighter slumber must take
place, so that it may be roused out of this deep dreamless sleep, and become
sufficiently active to pass on into the next stage: “It dreams in the
vegetable”.
Now the Second Logos, acting in the envelope of the
Group-Souls, energises the permanent physical atoms and, by the mediation of
the Shining Ones, as we have seen, plunges them into the various conditions
offered by the mineral kingdom, where each attaches to itself many mineral
particles. At once here we see a large [121] variety of possible
impacts, leading to a variety of experiences, and so presently to lines of
cleavage in a Group-Soul. Some will be whirled high in air, to fall in
torrents of burning lava; some will be exposed to arctic cold, others to
tropic heat; some will be crushed and sheathed in molten metal in the bowels
of the earth; some will be in the sand tossed roughly by rushing billows.
Infinite variety of external impacts will shake and strike and burn and
freeze, and in vague answers of sympathetic vibrations will the
deep-slumbering consciousness respond. When any permanent atom has reached
a certain responsiveness, or when a mineral form, i.e., the
particles to which a permanent atom has attached itself, is broken up, the
Group-Soul draws that atom from its encasement. All the experiences acquired
by that atom - and that means the vibrations it has been forced to execute -
remain as powers of vibrating in particular ways, or as “vibratory powers”.
That is the outcome of its life in a form. The permanent atom, losing its
embodiment and remaining for a while naked, as it [122] were, in its
Group-Soul, and continuing to repeat these vibrations, to go over within
itself its life-experiences, sets up pulses which run through the envelope
of the Group-Soul and are thus conveyed to other permanent atoms; thus each
affects and helps all the others while remaining itself. The permanent atoms
which have had experiences similar in character will be more strongly
affected by each other than will be those whose experiences have been very
different, and thus there will be a certain segregation going on within the
Group-Soul, and presently a filmy separating wall will grow inwards from
the envelope, and divide these segregated groups from each other; and so
there will be an ever-increasing number of Group-Souls with contents
showing an ever-increasing distinction of consciousness, while sharing
fundamental characteristics.
Now the responses of consciousness to external stimuli in
the mineral kingdom are far greater than many quite realise, and some of
them are of a nature which shows that there is a dawning of consciousness
also in the astral permanent atom. [123] For chemical elements
exhibit distinct mutual attractions, and chemical marital relationships are
continually disorganised by the intrusion of couples, one or other of which
has a stronger affinity for one of the partners in the earlier marriage than
the original mate. Thus a hitherto mutually faithful couple, forming a
silver salt, will suddenly prove faithless to each other if another couple,
hydro-chloric acid, enters their peaceful household; and the silver will
pounce upon the chlorine and take her to wife, preferring her to his former
mate, and set up a new household as silver chloride, leaving the deserted
hydrogen to mate with his own forsaken partner. Wherever these active
interchanges go on there is a slight stir in the astral atom, in consequence
of the violent physical vibrations set up by the violent wrenching apart,
and formation, of intimate ties, and vague internal thrillings appear. The
astral must be roused from the physical, and consciousness on the physical
plane will long take the lead in evolution. Still, a little cloud of astral
matter is drawn round the permanent astral atom by these [124] slight
thrillings, but it is very loosely held, and seems to be quite unorganised.
There does not seem to be any vibration in the mental atom at this stage.
After ages of experience in the mineral kingdom, some of
the permanent atoms will be ready to pass into the vegetable kingdom, and
will be distributed by the agency of the Shining Ones over the vegetable
world. It is not to be supposed that every blade of grass, every plant, has
a permanent atom within it, evolving to humanity during the life of this
system. Just as in the mineral kingdom, so here; the vegetable kingdom forms
the field of evolution for these permanent atoms, and the Shining Ones guide
them to habitat after habitat, so that they may experience the vibrations
that affect the vegetable world, and again store up these as vibratory
powers in the same fashion as before. The principles of interchange and of
consequent segregation work out as before, and the Group-Souls in each
stream of evolution become more numerous, and more different in their
leading characteristics. [125]
At our present stage of knowledge, the laws according to
which permanent atoms in a Group-Soul are plunged into the kingdoms of
nature are by no means clear. Many things seem to indicate that the
evolution of the mineral, vegetable, and the lowest part of the animal
kingdom belong more to the evolution of the earth itself than to that of the
Jivatmas representing the Monads who are evolving within the Solar System,
and who come, in due course, to this earth to pursue their own evolution by
utilising the conditions it affords. Grass and small plants of every kind
seem to be related to the earth as a man’s hairs are related to his body,
and not to be connected with the Monads, represented by Jivatmas in our
five-fold universe. The life in them, holding them together as forms,
appears to be that of the Second Logos, and the life in the atoms and
molecules composing them to be that of the Third Logos, appropriated and
modified by the Planetary Logos of our system of Chains, and further
appropriated and modified by the Spirit of the Earth - [126] an
entity wrapped in great obscurity. These kingdoms offer a field for the
evolution of the Jivatmas truly, but do not exist, apparently, wholly for
this purpose. We find permanent atoms scattered through the mineral and
vegetable kingdoms, but are unable to pierce to the reasons which govern
their distribution. A permanent atom may be found in a pearl, in a ruby, in
a diamond; many may be found scattered through veins or ore, and so on. On
the other hand much mineral does not seem to contain any. So with
short-lived plants. But in plants of long continuance, such as trees,
permanent atoms are constantly found. But here again, the life of the tree
seems to be more closely related to the Deva evolution than to the
evolution of the consciousness to which the permanent atom is attached. It
is rather as though advantage were taken of the evolution of life and
consciousness in the tree for the benefit of the permanent atom; it seems to
live there more as a parasite, profiting by the more highly evolved life in
which it is bathed. The fact is that our [127] knowledge on these
points is extremely fragmentary so far.
There is more activity perceptible in the astral
permanent atom during the course of the accumulation of vegetable
experiences by the physical, and it attracts round itself astral matter
which is arranged by the Shining Ones in a rather more definite way. In the
long life of a forest tree, the growing aggregation of astral matter
develops itself in all directions as the astral form of the tree, and the
consciousness attached to the permanent atoms shares, to some extent, that
of its surroundings, experiencing through that astral form the vibrations
causing massive pleasure and discomfort, these vibrations being the result
of those set up in the physical tree by sunshine and storm, wind and rain,
cold and heat. With the perishing of such a tree, the permanent astral atom
retreats to its Group-Soul, now established on the astral plane, with a rich
store of experiences, shared in the manner before described.
Further, as the consciousness becomes more responsive in
the astral, it sends little [128] thrills downwards to the physical
plane, and these give rise to feelings felt as though in the physical, but
really derived from the astral. Where there has been a long separate life,
as in a tree, the permanent mental unit will also begin to attract round
itself a little cloud of mental matter, and on this the recurrence of
seasons will slowly impress itself as a faint memory, which becomes
inevitably a faint anticipation.
At last some of the permanent physical atoms are ready to
pass on into the animal kingdom, and once more the agency of the Shining
Ones guides them into animal forms. During the later stages of their
evolution in the vegetable world, it appears to be the rule that each triad
- physical and astral atoms and mental unit - shall have a prolonged
experience in a single form, so that some thrills of mental life may be
experienced, and the triad may thus be prepared to profit by the wandering
life of the animal. But it also appears that in some cases the passage into
the animal [129] kingdom is made at an earlier stage, and that the
first thrill in the mental unit occurs in some of the stationary forms of
animal life, and in very lowly animal organisms.
In the lowest types of animals conditions similar to
those described as existing in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms also
appear to prevail. Microbes, amaebae, hydrae, etc., etc., only show a
permanent atom as a visitor, now and again, and obviously in no way depend
upon it for life and growth, nor do they break up when the permanent atom is
withdrawn. They are hosts, not bodies formed around a permanent atom. And it
is noteworthy that, at this stage, the golden life-web in no way represents
the organisation of the host’s body, but merely acts as rootlets act in the
soil, attaching particles of soil to themselves and sucking therefrom
nourishment. The permanent atoms in the animal kingdom have received and
stored up many experiences, before they are used by the Shining Ones as
centres round which forms are to be built.
Needless to say that in the animal [130] kingdom,
the permanent atoms receive far more varied vibrations than in the lower
kingdoms, and consequently differentiate more quickly, the number of triads
in the Group-Souls diminishing rapidly as this differentiation proceeds, and
the multiplication of Group-Souls therefore going on with increasing
rapidity. As the period of individuality approaches, each separate triad
becomes possessed of its own envelope, obtained from the Group-Soul, and
takes on successive embodiments as a separate entity, though still within
the enveloping case of protecting and nourishing monadic essence.
Large numbers of the higher animals in a state of
domestication have reached this stage, and have really become separate
re-incarnating entities, although not as yet possessing a causal body - the
mark of what is usually called individualisation. The envelope derived from
the Group-Soul serves the purpose of a causal body, but consists only of the
third layer, as previously indicated, and is therefore composed of molecules
derived from the fourth grade of mental [131] matter, that which
corresponds to the coarsest ether of the physical plane. Following the
analogy of human ante-natal life, we see that this stage corresponds with
its last two months. A seven-months’ babe may be born and may survive, but
it will be stronger, healthier, more vigorous, if it profits for yet another
two months by its mother’s shielding and nourishing life. So is it better
for the normal development of the Ego that it should not too hastily burst
the envelope of the Group-Soul, but should still absorb life through it, and
strengthen from its constituents the finest part of its own mental body.
When that body has reached its limit of growth under these shielded
conditions, the envelope disintegrates into the finer molecules of the
sub-plane above it, and becomes, as above said, part of the causal body.
It is the knowledge of these facts that has sometimes
caused occultists to warn people who are very fond of animals not to be
exaggerated in their affection, nor to show it in unwise ways. [132]
The growth of the animal may be unhealthily forced, and its birth into
individuality be hastened out of due time. Man, in order to fill rightly his
place in the world, should seek to understand nature and work with her
laws, quickening indeed their action by the co-operation of his
intelligence, but not quickening it to the point whereat growth is made
unhealthy and its product frail and “out of season”. It is true that the
Lord of Life seeks human co-operation in the working out of evolution, but
the co-operation should follow the lines which His Wisdom has laid down.
[133]
CHAPTER VI.
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. CONSCIOUSNESS A UNIT.
IN studying the very varied manifestations of
consciousness, we are apt to forget two important facts: first, that the
consciousness of each man is a Unit, however separate and different from
each other its manifestations may appear to be; secondly, that all these
Units themselves are parts of the consciousness of the Locos, and therefore
re-act similarly under similar conditions. We cannot too often remind
ourselves that consciousness is one; that all apparently separate
consciousnesses are truly one, as one sea might pour through many holes in
an embankment. That sea-water might issue from the holes differently
coloured, if the embankment were composed of [134] differently
coloured earths; but it would all be the same sea-water; analysed, it would
all show the presence of the same characteristic salts. So are all
consciousnesses from the same ocean of consciousness, and have many
essential identities. Enveiled in the same kind of matter, they will act in
the same kind of way, and reveal their fundamental identity of nature.
The individual consciousness appears to be a complexity
instead of a unity, when its manifestations are concerned, and modern
psychology speaks of dual and treble and multiplex personality, losing sight
of the fundamental unity among the confusion of the manifold. Yet truly is
our consciousness a Unit, and the variety is due to the materials in which
it is working.
The ordinary waking-consciousness of a man is the
consciousness working through the physical brain at a certain rate imposed
by it, conditioned by all the conditions of that brain, limited by all its
limitations, baulked by the varying obstructions it offers, checked by a
clot [135] of blood, silenced by the decay of tissue. At every moment
the brain hinders its manifestations, while at the same time it is, on the
physical plane, its only enabling instrument of manifestation.
When the consciousness, turning its attention away from
the external physical world, ignores the denser part of the physical brain,
and uses only the etheric portions thereof, its manifestations at once
change in character. The creative imagination disports itself in etheric
matter, and drawing on its accumulated contents, obtained from the external
world by its denser servant, it arranges them, dissociates, and recombines
them after its own fancies, and creates the lower worlds of dream.
When it casts aside for a while its ethereal garment,
turning its attention away completely from the physical world, and shedding
its fetters of physical matter, it roams through the astral world at will,
or drifts through it unconsciously, turning all its attention to its own
contents, receiving many impacts from that astral world, which it ignores or
accepts according to its stage [136] of evolution, or its humour of
the moment. If it should manifest itself to an outside observer - as may
happen in trance-conditions - it shows powers so superior to those it
manifested when imprisoned in the physical brain, that such an observer,
judging only by physical experiences, may well regard it as a different
consciousness.
Still more is this the case when, the astral body being
thrown into trance, the Bird of Heaven shows itself soaring into loftier
regions, and its splendid flight so enchants the observer that he deems it a
new being, and no longer the same entity as crawled in the physical world.
Yet truly is it ever one and the same; the differences are in the materials
with which it is connected, and through which it works, and not in itself.
As to the second important fact stated above, man is not
yet sufficiently developed to appreciate any evidence as to the unity of
consciousness in its workings above the physical plane, but its unity on the
physical plane is being demonstrated. [137]
2. UNITY OF PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Amid the immense varieties of the mineral, vegetable,
animal, and human kingdoms, the underlying unity of physical consciousness
has been lost sight of, and broad lines of cleavage have been set up which
do not, in reality, exist. Life has been wholly denied to the mineral,
grudged to the vegetable, and H. P. Blavatsky was ridiculed when she
declared that one Life, one Consciousness vivified and informed all.
“With every day, the identity between the animal and the
physical man, between the plant and man, and even between the reptile and
its nest, the rock, and man, is more and more clearly shown, the physical
and chemical constituents of all being found to be identical. Chemical
Science may well say that there is no difference between the matter which
composes the ox, and that which forms man. But the occult doctrine is far
more explicit. It says: Not only the chemical compounds are the same, but
the same infinitesimal invisible Lives compose the atoms of the [138]
bodies of the mountain and the daisy, of man and the ant, of the elephant
and of the tree which shelters it from the sun. Each particle - whether you
call it organic or inorganic - is a Life.”
If this be true, it should be possible to obtain from
such living minerals, vegetables, animals, and men, evidence of an identity
of life, of sentiency, of response to stimuli; and while we may freely admit
that we should expect to find gradations of sentiency, that as we ascend the
ladder of life we should expect the manifestations to become fuller and more
complex, yet some definite manifestations of sentiency should be found in
all who share one life. The evidence for this was lacking when H. P.
Blavatsky wrote; it is available now; and it is from an eastern scientist,
whose rare ability has ensured his welcome in the West, that the evidence
appropriately comes.
Professor Jagadish Chandra Bose, M.A., D.Sc., of
Calcutta, has definitely proved that so-called “inorganic matter” is
responsive to stimulus, and that the [139] response is identical from
metals, vegetables, animals, and - so far as experiment can be made - man.
He arranged apparatus to measure the stimulus applied,
and to show in curves, traced on a revolving cylinder, the response from the
body receiving the stimulus. He then compared the curves obtained in tin and
in other metals with those obtained from muscle, and found that the curves
from tin were identical with those from muscle, and that other metals gave
curves of like nature but varied in the period of recovery.
[140]
(a)
SERIES OF ELECTRIC
RESPONSES TO SUCCESSIVE MECHANICAL STIMULI AT INTERVALS OF HALF A MINUTE, IN
TIN. (b)
MECHANICAL RESPONSES IN
MUSCLE.
Tetanus, both complete and incomplete, due to repeated
shocks, was caused, and similar results accrued, in mineral as in muscle.
EFFECTS ANALOGOUS TO (a) INCOMPLETE AND (b)
COMPLETE TETANUS IN TIN. (a’) INCOMPLETE AND (b’) COMPLETE TETANUS IN
MUSCLE.
Fatigue was shown by metals, least of all by tin.
Chemical re-agents, such as drugs, produced similar results on metals with
those known to result with animals - [141] exciting, depressing, and
deadly. (By deadly is meant resulting in the destruction of the power of
response.)
A poison will kill a metal, inducing a condition of
immobility, so that no response is obtainable. If the poisoned metal be
taken in time, an antidote may save its life.
(a) NORMAL R&SPONSE; (b) EFFECT ON POISON; (c) REVIVAL BY
ANTIDOTE.
A stimulant will increase response, and as large and
small doses of a drug have been found to kill and stimulate respectively,
so have they been found to act on metals. “Among such phenomena,” asks
Professor Bose, “how can we draw a line of demarcation and say: Here the
physical process ends, and there the physiological begins? No such barriers
exist.”
[142]
Professor Bose has carried on a similar series of
experiments on plants, and has obtained similar results. A fresh piece of
cabbage stalk, a fresh leaf, or other vegetable body, can be stimulated and
will show similar curves; it can be fatigued, excited, depressed, poisoned.
There is something rather pathetic in seeing the way in which the tiny spot
of light, which records the pulses in the plant, travels, in ever weaker and
weaker curves, when the plant is under the influence of poison, falls into
a final despairing straight line, and - stops. The plant is dead. One feels
as though a murder had been committed - as indeed it has.
These admirable series of experiment have established, on
a definite basis of physical facts, the teaching of occult science on the
universality of life.
Mr. Marcus Reed has made microscopical observations
which show the [143] presence of consciousness in the vegetable
kingdom. He has observed symptoms as of fright when tissue is injured, and
further he has seen that male and female cells, floating in the sap, become
aware of each other’s presence without contact; the circulation quickens,
and they put out processes towards each other.
More than three years after the publication of Professor
Bose’s experiments, some interesting confirmation of his observations arose
in the course of M. Jean Becquerel’s study of the N-rays, communicated by
him to the Paris Academy of Sciences. Animals under chloroform cease to emit
these rays, and they are never emitted by a corpse. Flowers normally emit
them, but under chloroform the emanation ceases. Metals also emit them, and
under chloroform the emanation again ceases. Thus animals, flowers, and
metals alike give out these rays, and alike cease to emanate them under the
action of chloroform.
[144]
3. THE MEANING OF PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
The term “physical consciousness” is used in two distinct
senses, and it may be useful to pause a moment, in order to define these. It
is often used to indicate what is above termed “ordinary
waking-consciousness”, i.e., the consciousness of the man, of the
Jivatma -or, if the phrase be preferred, of the Monad working through the
Jivatma, and the lower triad of permanent atoms. It is also used in the
sense in which it is used here, as consciousness working in physical matter,
receiving and responding to physical impacts, unconcerned with any
transmission of impulses onward to the higher planes, or with any impulses
sent to the physical body from those planes.
In this more restricted and accurate sense, it would
include (a) any out-thrillings from the atoms and molecules ensouled by the
life of the Third Logos; (b) any [145] similar out-thrillings from
organised forms ensouled by the life of the Second Logos; and (c) any
similar out-thrillings from the life of the Monad, proceeding from the
permanent atoms, in which the spirillae are not directly concerned. When the
spirillae are active, the “ordinary wakingconsciousness” is affected. For
instance ammonia sniffed up by the nose shows two results; there is a rapid
secretion; that is the response of the cells in the olfactory tract;
there is also a “smell”; that is the result of a vibration running up
to the sense-centres in the astral body, and there recognised in
consciousness; the change in consciousness affects the first set of
spirillae in the atoms of the olfactory tract, and thus reaches the
“waking-consciousness” - consciousness working in the physical brain. It is
only through the spirillae that changes in consciousness on the higher
planes bring about changes in the “waking-consciousness”.
It must be remembered that as the Solar System is a field
for the evolution of all the developing consciousnesses [146] within
it, so are there smaller areas within it, serving as smaller fields. Man is
the microcosm of the universe, and his body serves as a field of evolution
for myriads of consciousnesses less evolved than his own. Thus the three
activities mentioned above under (a), (b), and (c) are all present in his
body, and all enter into the physical consciousness working therein; that
in which the atomic spirillae are concerned does not enter it; that belongs
to the consciousness of the Jivatma. The workings of physical consciousness
do not now directly affect the “waking-consciousness” in the higher animals
or in man. They affected it in the earlier part of the embryonic life in the
Group-Soul, while the consciousness of the Second Logos was “mothering” the
dawning consciousnesses derived from it. But physical consciousness has now
sunk below the “threshold of consciousness”, while showing itself as “the
memory of the cell”, as the selective action in glands and papillae, and
generally in the carrying on of functions necessary for the support [147]
of bodies. It is the lowest activity of consciousness, and as
consciousness functions more and more actively on the higher plane, its
lowest workings no longer attract its attention, and they become what we
call automatic.
Now it is physical consciousness that is appealed to in
Professor Bose’s experiments, and it is the response of this consciousness
in the tin and in the animal that is the same, and is shown in the pulse
indicated by the curves; the animal will feel the stimulus while the tin
will not - that is the result of the additional working of the
consciousness in astral matter.
We may thus allege that consciousness, working in
physical matter, responds to various kinds of stimulation, and that the
response is the same, whether it be obtained from mineral, vegetable, or
animal. The consciousness shows the same characteristic workings, is
the same. The differences which, as already said, we observe as we ascend,
lie in the improvement of the physical apparatus, an apparatus which
enables astral and mental - not physical - activities of consciousness
[148] to manifest themselves on the physical plane. Men and animals feel
and think better than minerals and vegetables, because their more highly
evolved consciousness has shaped for itself on the physical plane this much
improved apparatus; but even so, our bodies answer as the lower bodies
answer to the same stimuli, and this purely physical consciousness is the
same in all.
Now in the mineral, the astral matter connected with the
permanent astral atom is so little active, and consciousness is sleeping so
deeply therein, that there is no perceptible working from the astral to the
physical. In the higher plants there seems to be a sort of forth-shadowing
of a nervous system, but it is too little developed and organised to serve
anything but the simplest purposes. The added activity on the astral plane
improves the astral sheath in connexion with the plant, and the vibrations
of the astral sheath affect the etheric portion of the plant, and thus its
denser matter. Hence the forth-shadowing of a nervous system above alluded
to. [149]
When we come to the animal stage, the much greater
activity of the consciousness on the astral plane causes more powerful
vibrations, which pass to the etheric double of the animal, and by the
etheric vibrations thus caused, the nervous system is builded. The shaping
of it is due to the Logos through the Group-Soul, and to the active
assistance of the Shining Ones of the Third Elemental Kingdom, directing the
work of the ethereal Nature-Spirits. But the impulse comes from the
consciousness on the astral plane working in the permanent atom and the
sheath of astral matter attracted by it, roused to activity by the
Group-Soul. As the first very simple apparatus is formed, more delicate
impacts from without can be perceived, and these impacts also help in thy
evolution. Action and reaction succeed each other, and the mechanism
continually improves in receptive and transmitting ability.
Consciousness does not do much building on the astral
plane at this stage, and works there in an unorganised sheath; the
organising is done on the [150] physical plane by the efforts of
consciousness to express itself - dim and vaguely groping as these efforts
are - aided and directed by the Group-Soul and the Shining Ones. This work
has to be completed to a great extent before the Third Life-Wave pours down,
for animal man has evolved, with his brain and nervous systems, before that
great outpouring comes which gives the Jivatma a working body, and makes
possible the higher evolution of man. [151]
CHAPTER VII.
THE MECHANISM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MECHANISM.
IN a very real sense the whole of the bodies of man form
the mechanism of consciousness, as organs for willing, thinking, and acting;
but the nervous apparatus may be called its special mechanism, as that
whereby, in the physical body, it controls and directs all. Every cell in
the body is composed of myriads of tiny lives, each with its own germinal
consciousness;
each cell has its [152] own dawning consciousness, controlling and
organising these; but the central ruling consciousness which uses the whole
body controls and organises it, in turn, and the mechanism in which it
functions for this purpose is the nervous.
This nervous mechanism is the outcome of astral impulses,
and consciousness must be active on the astral plane before it can be
constructed. Impulses set up by the consciousness - willing to
experience and vaguely endeavouring to give effect to this Will -cause
vibrations in etheric matter, and these vibrations, by the very nature of
the matter,
become electric, magnetic, heat, and other energies. These are the masons
which work under the impulse of the master-builder, Consciousness. The
impulse is from him; the execution is by them. The directive intelligence,
which as yet he cannot furnish, is supplied by the Logic life in the
Group-Soul, and by the [153] Nature-Spirits working under the
guidance, as already said, of the Shining Ones of the Third Elemental
Kingdom.
We have then to understand that nervous matter is built
up on the physical plane under impulses from the astral, the directly
constructive forces being indeed physical, but the guidance and the setting
in motion of them being astral, i.e., proceeding from
consciousness active on the astral plane. The life-energy, the prana, which
flows in rosy waves, pulsing along the etheric matter in all nerves, not in
their medullary sheaths but in their substance, comes down immediately from
the astral plane; it is drawn from the great reservoir of life, the LOGOS,
and is specialised on the astral plane and sent down thence into the nervous
system, blending there with the magnetic, electrical, and other currents
which form the purely physical prana, drawn from the same reservoir, but
through the Sun, His physical body; close examination shows that the
constituents of the prana of the mineral kingdom are fewer and less complex
in arrangement than those of the [154] prana in the higher vegetable
kingdom, and this again less so than that in the animal and human, and this
difference is due to the fact that the astral prana mingles in the latter
and not in the former - to any perceptible degree, at least. After the
formation of the causal body, this complexity of the prana circulating in
the nervous systems of the physical body much increases, and it appears to
become yet more enriched in the progress of human evolution. For as the
consciousness becomes active on the mental plane, the prana of that plane
mingles also with the lower, and so on as the activity of consciousness is
carried on in higher regions.
We may pause a moment on this word “prana”, that I have
translated as “life-energy”. Pran is a Samskrit root, meaning to
breathe, to live, to blow, made up of an, to breathe, move, live, and
hence the Spirit, joined with the prefix pra, forth. Thus
pra-an, pran, means to breathe forth, and life-breath, or life-energy, is
the nearest English equivalent to the Samskrit term. As [155]
according to Hindu thought there is but one Life, one Consciousness,
everywhere, the word Prana has been used for the Supreme Self, the
all-sustaining Breath. It is the forth-giving energy of the One; for us, the
Life of the LOGOS. Hence that Life on every plane may be spoken of as the
Prana of the plane; it becomes the life-breath in every creature. On the
physical plane it is energy, appearing in many forms, electricity, heat,
light, magnetism, etc., transmutable into each other, because fundamentally
one; on other planes we have no names whereby to designate it, but the idea
is definite enough. Appropriated by a being, it is prana in the narrower
sense in which it is generally used in theosophical literature, the
individual’s life-breath. It is the vital energy, the vital force, of which
all other energies, chemical, electrical, and the rest, are merely
derivatives and fractional parts; and it is a little quaint for the
occultist when he hears scientific men talking glibly of chemical or
electrical energy, and denouncing their parent, vital energy, as an
“exploded [156] superstition”. These partial manifestations of vital
energy are merely due to the arrangements of matter in which it plays,
cutting off one or another of its characteristics, or perhaps all of them
save one, as blue glass will shut off all the rays except the blue ones, and
red all except the red.
In The Secret Doctrine H. P. Blavatsky speaks of
the relation of prana to the nervous system. She quotes, and partly
endorses, partly corrects, the view of “nervous ether”, put forward by Dr.
B. W. Richardson; the Sun-force is “the primal cause of all life on earth”,
and the Sun is “the store-house of vital force, which is the noumenon of
electricity”.
The “‘nervous ether’ is the lowest principle of the Primordial Essence
which is Life. It is animal vitality diffused in all Nature, and acting
according to the conditions it finds for its activity. It is not an ‘animal
product’; but the living animal, the living flower and plant, are its
products”.
On the physical plane this prana, this [157]
life-force, builds up all minerals, and is the controlling agent in the
chemico-physiological changes in protoplasm, which lead to differentiation
and the building of the various tissues of the bodies of plants, animals,
and men. They show its presence by the power of responding to stimuli, but
for a time this power is not accompanied by distinct sentiency;
consciousness has not unfolded enough to feel pleasure and pain.
When the current of prana from the astral plane, with its
attribute of sentiency, blends with that of the prana of the physical plane,
it begins the building of a new arrangement of matter - the nervous. This,
nervous arrangement is fundamentally a cell, details as to which can be
studied in any modern text-book dealing with the subject,
and the development consists of internal changes and of outgrowths of the
matter of the cell, these outgrowths becoming sheathed [158] in
medullary matter and then appearing a threads or fibres. Every nervous
system, however elaborate, consists of cells and their outgrowths, these
outgrowths becoming more numerous, and forming ever multiplying connexions
between the cells, as consciousness demands, for its expression, a more and
more elaborated nervous system. This fundamental simplicity at the root of
such complexity of details is found even in man, the possessor of the most
highly evolved nervous organisation. The many millions of neural ganglia
in the brain and body are all produced by the end of the third month of
ante-natal life, and their development consists in expansion, and the
outgrowth of their substance into fibres. This development in later life
results from the activity of thought; as a man thinks strenuously and
continuously, the thought-vibrations cause chemical activity, and the
dendrons
shoot out from the [159] cells, making connexions and
cross-connexions in every direction, literal pathways along which prana
pulsates - prana which is now composed of factors from the physical, astral
and mental planes - and thought-vibrations travel.
Returning from this digression into the human kingdom,
let us see how the building of the nervous system, by vibratory impulses
from the astral, begins and is carried on. We find a minute group of nerve
cells and tiny processes connecting them. This is formed by the action of a
centre which has previously appeared in the astral body - of which something
will presently be said - an aggregation of astral matter arranged to form a
centre for receiving and responding to impulses from outside. From that
astral centre vibrations pass into the etheric body, causing little etheric
whirlpools which draw into themselves particles of denser physical matter,
forming at last a nerve cell, and groups of nerve cells. These physical
centres, receiving vibrations from the outer world, send impulses back to
the astral centres, increasing their vibrations; thus the [160]
physical and the astral centres act and re-act on each other, and each
becomes more complicated and more effective. As we pass up the animal
kingdom, we find the physical nervous system constantly improving, and
becoming a more and more dominant factor in the body, and this first-formed
system becomes, in the vertebrates, the sympathetic system, controlling and
energising the vital organs - the heart, the lungs, the digestive tract;
beside it slowly develops the cerebro-spinal system, closely connected in
its lower workings with the sympathetic, and becoming gradually more and
more dominant, while it also becomes in its most important development the
normal organ for the expression of the “waking consciousness”. This
cerebro-spinal system is built up by impulses originating in the mental, not
in the astral plane, and is only indirectly related to the astral through
the sympathetic system, built up from the astral. We shall see later the
bearing of this on the astral sensitiveness of animals, and lowly-developed
human beings, the disappearance, of this sensitiveness with the [161]
development of intellect, and its reappearance in the higher human
evolution.
The permanent atoms form the imperfect but only direct
channel between the consciousness manifesting as the spiritual Triad and the
forms he is connected with. In the case of the higher animals these atoms
are exceedingly active, and in the brief time between the physical lives
considerable changes occur in these. As evolution goes on the increasing
flow of life from the Group-Soul and through the permanent atom, as well as
the increasing complexity of the physical apparatus, rapidly augment the
sensitiveness of the animal. There is comparatively little sensitiveness in
the lower animal lives, and little in fishes, despite their cerebrospinal
system. As evolution proceeds, the sense-centres continue to develop in the
astral sheath, and in the higher animal these are well organised and the
senses are acute. But with this acuteness there is brevity of sensations,
and except with the highest animals little of the mental element mingles to
lend increased and longer continued sensitiveness to sensation. [162]
2. THE ASTRAL OR DESIRE BODY.
The evolution of the astral body must be studied in
relation to the physical, for while it plays the part of a creator on the
physical plane, as we have seen, its own further development largely depends
on the impulses received through the very organism it has created. It does
not, for a long time, enjoy an independent life of its own on its own plane,
and the organisation of the astral body in relation to the physical is
quite a different matter, and much earlier in time, than its organisation in
relation to the astral world. In the East they speak of the astral and
mental vehicles of consciousness, when acting in relation to the physical,
as koshas, or sheaths, and use the term sharira, or body, for a form capable
of independent action in the visible and invisible worlds. This distinction
may serve us here.
The astral sheath of the mineral is a mere cloud of
appropriated astral matter, and does not show any perceptible signs of
organisation. The same is the case with most vegetables, but in some there
[163] seem to be certain indications of aggregations and lines,
which, in the light of later evolution, appear to be the dawn of incipient
organisation; and in some old forest trees distinct aggregations of astral
matter are visible at certain points. In animals these aggregations become
clearly marked and definite, forming centres in the astral sheath of a
permanent and specialised kind.
These aggregations in the astral sheath are the
beginnings of the centres which will build up the necessary organs in the
physical body, and are not the often-named chakras, or wheels, which belong
to the organisation of the astral body itself, and fit it for functioning on
its own plane in connexion with the mental sheath, as the lower type of the
eastern sukshma sharira, or subtle body. The astral chakras are connected
with the astral senses, so that a person in whom they are developed can see,
hear, etc., on the astral plane; they lie far ahead of the point in
evolution that we are considering, a point at which the perceptive powers
of consciousness have not yet any organ, even on the physical plane.
[164]
As these aggregations in the astral sheath appear, the
impulses of consciousness on the astral plane, guided as before explained,
play on the etheric double, forming the etheric whirlpools already
mentioned, and corresponding centres thus arise in the astral sheath and
physical body, the sympathetic system being thus built up. This system
always remains thus directly connected with the astral centres, even after
the cerebro-spinal system is evolved. But from the aggregations in the
fore-part or the astral sheath, ten important centres are formed, which
become connected with the brain through the sympathetic system, and
gradually become the dominant organs for the activities of the physical, or
waking-consciousness - that is, for that part of the consciousness which
functions normally through the cerebro-spinal system. Five out of the ten
serve to receive special impressions from the outside world, and are the
centres through which consciousness uses its perceptive powers; they are
called in Samskrit, Jnanendriyas, literally “knowledge-senses”, [165]
i.e., senses, or sense-centres, by which knowledge is obtained. These
set up, in the way before explained, five distinct etheric whirlpools, and
thus construct five centres in the physical brain; these, in turn, severally
shape and remain connected with their appropriate sense-organs. Thus arise
the five sense-organs: the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, skin, specialised to
receive impressions from the outer world, corresponding to the five
perceptive powers of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling. These are
specialised ways in the lower worlds by which part of the perceptive ability
of consciousness, its power of receiving external contacts, is exercised.
They belong to the lower worlds and to the grosser forms of matter which
shut consciousness in, and prevent it, thus enwrapped, from knowing other
lives; they are openings in this dense veil of matter, permitting vibrations
to enter in and reach the shrouded consciousness.
The remaining five of these ten astral centres serve to
convey vibrations from consciousness to the outer word; they [166]
are the avenues outwards, as the knowledge-senses are the avenues inwards;
they are named Karmendriyas, literally action-senses, senses or
sense-centres which cause action. These develop like the others, forming
etheric whirlpools, which make the motor-centres in the physical brain;
these, again, severally shape and remain connected with their appropriate
motor-organs, hands, feet, larynx, and organs of generation and excretion.
We have now an organised astral sheath, and the continual
action and re-action between this and the physical body improve both, and
these together act on the consciousness and it re-acts on them, both again
gaining by this mutual interaction. And as we have already seen, these blind
impulses of consciousness are guided in their play upon matter by the Logic
life in the Group-Soul and by the Nature-Spirits. Always it is life,
consciousness, seeking to realise itself in matter, and matter responding
in virtue of its own inherent qualities, vitalised by the action of the
Third Logos. [167]
3. CORRESPONDENCE IN ROOT-RACES.
A similar succession in the present, the fourth, Round
marks the evolution of the kingdoms of Nature, the main characteristics of
the previous Rounds being, as it were, repeated in the Root-Races, just as
the history of evolution wrought out during long ages is repeated during the
embryonic life of each new body. During the existence of the first two human
Races there were conditions of temperature which would render sensibility
destructive of any life-manifestation, and those Races show no sensibility
to pleasure and pain on the physical plane. In the third Race there is
sensibility to violent impacts, causing coarse pleasures and pains, but only
some of the senses are evolved, those of hearing, touch, and sight, and
these but to a low stage, as we shall presently see.
Now in the first two Races there are visible the
beginnings of aggregations in the astral matter of the sheaths, arid if
these could connect themselves with appropriate physical matter there would
be in the physical consciousness sensations [168] of pleasure and
pain. But the appropriate connexions are lacking. The first Race shows a
feeble sense of hearing, the second a vague response to impacts, the dawning
sense of touch.
The spiritual Triad, at this stage or evolution, is so
insensitive to vibrations from external matter that it is only when he
receives the tremendous vibrations caused by impacts on the physical plane
that he begins slowly to respond. Everything begins for him on the physical
plane. He does not respond directly, but indirectly, through the mediation
of the Logic life, and only as the primary physical apparatus is built up do
the subtler impulses come through with sufficient force to cause pleasure
and pain. The violent vibrations from the physical plane cause corresponding
vibration on the astral, and he becomes dimly conscious of sensation.
[169]
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST HUMAN STEPS.
1. THE THIRD LIFE-WAVE.
THE middle of the Third Root-Race had been reached; the
nervous apparatus of animal man had been built up to a point at which it
needed for its further improvement the more direct flow of thought from the
spiritual Triad to which it was attached; the Group-Soul had completed its
work for these, the higher products of evolution, as the medium by which the
life of the Second Logos protected and nourished His infant children; it was
now to form the foundation of the causal body, the vessel into which the
down-pouring life was, to be received; the term of the ante-natal life of
the Monad was touched, and the time was ripe for his birth into the [170]
lower world. The mother-life of the Logos had built for him the bodies
in which he could now live as a separate entity in the world of forms, and
he was to come into direct possession of his bodies and take up his human
evolution.
We have seen that the Monads derive their being from the
First Logos, and dwell on the anupadaka, the second, plane during the ages
over which we have glanced. We have also seen that they appropriated to
themselves with the help of different agents the three permanent atoms that
represent them as Jivatmas on the third, fourth, and fifth planes, and also
those which form the lower triad on the fifth, sixth, and seventh. All the
communication of the Monad with the planes below his own has been through
the Sutratma, the life-thread, on which the atoms are strung, that
life-thread - of second plane matter - passing from the atmic atom to the
buddhic, from the buddhic to the manasic, and from the manasic re-entering
the atmic, thus making the “Triangle of Light” on the higher planes. We have
seen further [171] that from the line of this Triangle on the buddhic
plane comes forth a thread, the Sutratma of the lower planes, on which the
lower triad is strung.
The time has now come for a fuller communication than is
represented by this delicate thread in its original form, and it, as it
were, widens out. This is but a clumsy way of picturing the fact that the
Ray from the Monad glows and increases, assuming more the form of a funnel:
“The thread between the Silent Watcher and his shadow becomes stronger an
radiant”.
This downflow of monadic life is accompanied by much increased flow between
the buddhic and manasic permanent atoms, and the latter seems to awaken,
sending out thrills in every direction. Other manasic atoms and molecules
gather round it, and a whirling vortex is seen on the three upper sub-planes
of the mental plane. A similar whirling motion is seen in the cloudy mass
surrounding the attached mental unit below, enveloped in the remaining layer
of the Group-Soul, as already described. The layer is torn [172]
asunder, and caught up into the vortex above, where it is disintegrated, and
the causal body is formed, a delicate filmy envelope, as the whirlpool
subsides. This downflow of life, resulting in the formation of the causal
body, is called the Third Life-Wave, and is properly ascribed to the First
Logos, since the Monads came forth from Him and represent His triune life.
The causal body once formed, the spiritual Triad has a
permanent vehicle for further evolution, and when Consciousness becomes able
to function freely in this vehicle, the Triad will be able to control and
direct, far more effectively than ever before, the evolution of the lower
vehicles.
The earlier efforts to control are not, however, of a
very intelligent description, any more than the first movements of the body
of the infant show they are directed by any intelligence, although we know
that an intelligence is connected with it. The Monad is now, in a very real
sense, born on the physical plane, but still he must be regarded as a babe
there, and must pass through an immense period of time before [173]
his power over the physical body will be anything but infantile.
2. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT.
And this is clearly seen if we look at man as he was in
his early days. Those long-perished Lemurians - if we except those entities
who had already developed consciousness to a considerable extent, and who
took birth in the clumsy Lemurian bodies in order to lead human evolution -
were very poorly developed as to their sense organs; those of smell and
taste were not developed, but were only in process of building. Their
sensitiveness to pleasure and pain was slight.
In the Atlanteans the senses were much more active; sight
was very keen and hearing was acute; taste was more developed than among the
Lemurians, but was still not highly evolved; coarse and rank foods were
found perfectly tolerable and even agreeable, and very highly-flavoured
articles of diet, such as decaying meat, were preferred to more delicate
viands, which were considered [174] tasteless. The body was not very
sensitive to injuries, and severe wounds did not cause much pain, nor were
followed by prostration - even extensive lacerations failing to incapacitate
the sufferer - and healing very quickly. The remnants of the Lemurian Race
now existing, as well as the widely spread Atlantean, still show a relative
insensitiveness to pain, and undergo, with very partial disablement,
lacerations that would utterly prostrate a fifth Race man. A North American
Indian has been reported as fighting on after the side of the thigh had
been slashed away, and taking the field again after twelve or fifteen hours.
This characteristic of the fourth Race body enables a savage to bear with
composure, and to recover from, tortures that would prostrate a fifth Race
man from nervous shock.
These differences derive largely from the varying
developments of the permanent atom, the nucleus of the physical body. There
is, in the fifth Root-Race, a fuller stream of life pouring down, causing
the greater internal development of the permanent atom, and increasing as
[175] that development proceeds. As evolution goes on, there is an
increasing complexity of vibratory powers in the physical permanent atom, a
similar increase in the astral atom, and again in the mental unit. As birth
follows birth, and these permanent nuclei are put out on each plane to
gather round them the new mental, astral and physical encasements, the more
highly developed permanent atoms draw round them the more highly developed
atoms on the planes to which they belong, and thus build up a better nervous
apparatus through which the ever-increasing stream of consciousness can
flow. In this way is built up the delicately organised nervous apparatus of
the fifth Race man.
In the fifth Race man the internal differentiation of the
nervous cells is much increased, and the intercommunications are much more
numerous. Speaking generally, the consciousness of the fifth Race man is
working on the astral plane, and is withdrawn from the physical body except
so far as the cerebro-spinal nervous system is concerned. The control of the
vital organs of the body is left to the [176] sympathetic system,
trained through long ages to perform this work, and now kept going by
impulses from the astral centres other than the ten, without deliberate
attention from the otherwise occupied consciousness, although of course
sustained by it. It is, however, as we shall presently see, quite possible
to draw the attention of consciousness again to this part of its mechanism,
and to reassume intelligent control of it. In the more highly evolved
members of the fifth Race, the main impulses of consciousness are sent down
from the lower mental world; and work down through the astral to the
physical, and there stimulate the physical nervous activity. This is the
keen, subtle, intelligent consciousness, moved by ideas more than by
sensations, and showing itself more actively in the mental and emotional
brain-centres than in those concerned with sensory and motor phenomena.
The sense-organs of the fifth Race body are less active
and acute than those of the highest fourth Race in responding to purely
physical impacts. The eye, the [177] ear, the touch do not respond to
vibrations which would affect the fourth Race sense-organs. It is
significant, also, that these organs are at their keenest in early
childhood, and diminish in sensitiveness from about the sixth year onward.
On the other hand, while less acute in receiving pure sense-impacts, they
become more sensitive to sensations intermingled with emotions, and
delicacies of colour and of sound, whether of nature or of art, appeal to
them more effectively. The higher and more intricate organisation of the
sense-centres in the brain and in the astral body seems to bring about
increased sensitiveness to beauty of colour, form, and sound, but diminished
response to the sensations in which the emotions play no part.
The fifth Race body is also far more sensitive to shock
than are the bodies of the fourth and third Races, being more dependent upon
consciousness for its upkeep. A nervous shock is far more keenly felt, and
entails far greater prostration. A severe mutilation is no longer a
question merely of lacerated muscle, of [178] torn tissues, but of
dangerous nervous shock; the highly organised nervous system carries the
message of distress to the brain centres, and it is sent on from them to the
astral body, disturbing and upsetting the astral consciousness. This is
followed by disturbance on the mental plane; imagination is aroused, memory
stimulates anticipation, and the rush of mental impulses intensifies and
prolongs sensations. These again stimulate and excite the nervous system,
and its undue excitation acts on the vital organs, causing organic
disturbance; hence depression of vitality and slow recovery.
So also in the highly evolved fifth Race body, mental
conditions largely rule the physical, and intense anxiety, mental
suffering, and worry, producing nervous tension, readily disturb organic
processes and bring about weakness or disease. Hence mental strength and
serenity directly promote physical health, and when the consciousness is
definitely established on the astral or the mental plane, emotional and
mental disturbance are far more productive of ill-health than [179]
any privations inflicted on the physical body. The evolved fifth Race man
lives physically literally in his nervous system.
2. INCONGRUOUS SOULS AND BODIES.
But we should here notice a significant fact, bearing on
the all-important question of the relation of the nervous organisation to
consciousness. When a human consciousness has not yet grown beyond the
later Lemurian or earlier Atlantean type, but is born into a fifth Race
body, it presents a curious and interesting study. (The reasons for such a
birth cannot here be enlarged upon; briefly, as the more advanced nations
annex the lands occupied by little evolved tribes, and kill them off either
directly or indirectly, the people thus summarily evicted from their bodies
have to find new habitats; the suitable savage conditions are becoming
rarer and rarer, under the ever-expanding flood of higher races, and they
have to take birth under the lowest available conditions, such as the slums
of large cities, in families of criminal types. They [180] are drawn
to the conquering nation by karmic necessity.) Such persons incarnate in
fifth Race bodies of the worst available material. They then show out in
these fifth Race bodies the qualities that belong to the earlier fourth or
the third; and though they have the physical outer nervous organisation,
they have not the internal differentiation in the nervous matter that only
comes with the play on physical matter of energies coming from the astral
and mental worlds. We observe in them the non-responsiveness to impressions
from outside, unless the impressions are of a violent order, that marks the
low grade of development of the individual consciousness. We notice the
falling back into inertia when a violent physical stimulus is absent; the
recurrent craving for such violent stimulus when roused by physical
necessities; the stirring into faint mental activity under vehement impact
on the sense-organs, and the blankness when the sense-organs are at rest;
the complete absence of any response to a thought or a high emotion - not a
rejection but an un-consciousness of it. Excitement or violence [181]
in such a person is caused as a rule by something outside - by something
coming before him physically which his dawning mind connects with the
possibility of gratifying some passion which he remembers, and desires
again to feel. Such a person may not be intent on robbery or murder at all,
but may be stimulated into either or both by the mere sight of a
well-dressed passer-by who seems likely to have money - money, that means
gratification by food, drink, or sex. The stimulus to attack the passer-by
is at once given, and will be followed at once by action, unless checked by
a physical and obvious danger, such as the sight of a policeman. It is the
embodied physical temptation which arouses the idea of committing the crime;
a man who plans a crime beforehand is more highly developed; the mere savage
commits a crime on the impulse of the moment, unless faced by another
physical embodiment, that of a force which he fears. And when the crime is
committed, he is impervious to all appeals to shame or remorse; he is
susceptible only to terror.
These remarks do not, of course, apply [182] to
the intelligent criminal, but only to the congenital brutal and obtuse type,
the third or fourth Race savage in a fifth Race body.
As the truths of the Ancient Wisdom more and more colour
modern thought, they will inevitably, among other things, modify the
treatment of the criminal. Such criminals as are here spoken of will not be
punished brutally, but will be kept permanently under strict discipline; and
will be, as far as is practicable, aided to progress more quickly than would
have been possible under the conditions of savage life. But the further
consideration of this would lead us too far from our main study, and we must
now return to the workings of consciousness on the astral plane, as they
show themselves in the higher animals and in the lower human types.
4. DAWN OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE ASTRAL PLANE.
We have seen that astral organisation precedes and shapes
the physical nervous [183] system, and we have now to consider how
this must affect the workings of consciousness. We should expect to find
that consciousness on the astral plane will become aware of impacts on its
astral sheath in a vague and un-precise way, just as, in the minerals and
the plants and the lowest animals, it became aware of impacts on its
physical body. This awareness of astral impacts will long precede any
definite organisation in the astral sheath, the bridge between the mental
and the physical, that will gradually evolve it into an astral body, the
independent vehicle of consciousness on the astral plane. And, as we have
seen, the first organisation in the astral sheath is a response to impacts
received through the physical body, and is related to the physical body in
its evolution. This organisation has nothing to do directly with the
reception, co-ordination, and understanding of astral impacts, but is
engaged in being acted upon by, and re-acting on, the physical nervous
system. Consciousness everywhere precedes Self-consciousness and the
evolution of [184] consciousness on the astral plane proceeds
contemporaneously with the evolution of Self-consciousnesss - to be dealt
with presently - on the physical.
The impacts on the astral sheath from the astral plane
produce vibratory waves over the whole astral sheath, and the ensheathed
consciousness gradually becomes dimly aware of these surgings, without
relating them to any external cause. It is groping after the much more
violent physical impacts, and such power of attention as it has evolved is
turned on them. The aggregations of astral matter, connected with the
physical nervous systems, naturally share in the general surgings of the
astral sheath, and the vibrations caused by these surgings mingle with
those coming from the physical body, and affect also the vibrations sent
down to it by the consciousness through these aggregations. Thus a
connexion is established between astral impacts and the sympathetic system,
and they play a considerable part in its evolution. As the consciousness
working in the physical body begins slowly to recognise an external world,
[185] these impacts from the astral - gradually classified under the
five senses as are the impacts from the physical - mingle with those from
the physical plane and are not distinguished as being different from them in
origin. This recognition is the lower clairvoyance, that which precedes the
great evolution of mind. So long as the sympathetic system is acting as the
dominant apparatus of consciousness, so long will the origin, astral or
physical, of impacts remain as the same to consciousness. Even the higher
animals - in whom the cerebro-spinal system is well developed, but in whom
it is not yet, save in its sense-centres, the chief mechanism of
consciousness - fail to distinguish between physical and astral sights,
sounds, etc. A horse will leap over an astral body as though it were a
physical one; a cat will rub herself against the legs of an astral figure; a
dog will growl at a similar appearance. In the dog and the horse there is
the dawning of an uneasy sense of some difference, shown by the fear of such
appearances often manifested by the dog, and by the timidity of the horse.
[186] The nervousness of the horse - despite which he can be trained
to face the dangers of a battle-field, and even, as with Arab mares, learn
to pick up and carry away his fallen rider through all the alarming
surroundings - seems chiefly due to his confusion and bewilderment as to his
environment, and his inability to distinguish between what later he will
learnedly call “objective realities”, against which he can injure his body,
and “delusions”, or “hallucinations”, through which his body can pass
unscathed. To him they are all “real”, and the difference of their behaviour
alarms him; in the case of an exceptionally intelligent horse the
nervousness is often greater, as he evolves a dawning sense of difference in
the phenomena themselves, and this at first, not being understood, is yet
more disquieting.
The savage, living more in the cerebro-spinal system,
distinguishes between the physical and the astral phenomena, though the
latter to him are as “real” as the physical: he relates them to another
world, to which he relegates [187] all things that do not behave in
the way he considers normal. He does not know that, with regard to these, he
is conscious through the sympathetic and not through the cerebro-spinal
system; he is conscious of them - that is all. The Lemurians and early
Atlanteans were almost more conscious astrally than they were physically.
Astral impacts, throwing the whole astral sheath into waves, came through
the sense-centres of the astral to the sympathetic centres in the physical
body, and they were vividly aware of them. Their lives were dominated by
sensations and passions more than by intellect, and the special apparatus of
the astral sheath, the sympathetic system, was then the dominant mechanism
of consciousness.
As the cerebro-spinal system became elaborated, and more
and more assumed its peculiar position as the chief apparatus of
consciousness on the physical plane, the attention of consciousness was
fixed more and more on the external physical world, and its aspect of
activity, as the concrete mind, was brought into greater [188] and
greater prominence. The sympathetic system became subordinate, and its
indications were less and less regarded, submerged under the flood of the
coarser and heavier physical impacts from without. Hence a lessening of
astral consciousness and an increase of intelligence, though there still
remains in almost every one a vague sense of non-understood impressions
received from time to time.
At the present stage of evolution this lower form of
clairvoyance is still found among human beings, but in persons of very
limited intellect; they have little idea as to its rationale, and little
control over its exercise. Attempts to increase it are apt to cause nervous
disturbances of a very refractory kind, and these attempts are against the
law of evolution, which works ever forward towards a higher end, and does
not move backwards. As the law cannot be changed, attempts to work against
it only cause disturbance and disease. We cannot revert to the condition in
which the sympathetic system was dominant, save at the cost of health, and
of the higher intellectual evolution. [189] Hence the serious danger
of following many of the directions now published broadcast, to meditate on
the solar plexus, and other sympathetic centres.
The practices, a few of which have come over to the West,
are systematised into Hatha Yoga in India. Control over the involuntary
muscles is regained, so that a man can reverse peristaltic action, inhibit
the beating of the heart, vomit at will, and so on. Much time and trouble
must be wasted ere the performance of such feats becomes possible, and at
the end the man has only brought back to the control of the will muscles
which have long since been handed over by it to the sympathetic system. As
that handing-over was done by a gradual turning away of attention, so is it
by a concentration of attention on the parts concerned that the earlier
achievement is reversed. As such performances impose upon the ignorant, who
regard them as evidences of spiritual greatness, they are often practised by
men who desire power, and are unable to obtain it in a more legitimate way.
Moreover, [190] they are the easiest form of Hatha Yoga; and are more
easily cultivated, and cost far less suffering, than holding an arm extended
till it withers, or lying on a bed of spikes.
When the cerebro-spinal system is thrown temporarily into
abeyance, the impulses from the astral sheath through the sympathetic system
make themselves felt in consciousness. Hence “lucidity” in trance,
self-induced or imposed, the power of reading in the astral by the use of
crystals, and other similar devices. The partial or complete suspension of
the action of consciousness in the higher vehicle causes it to direct
attention on the lower.
It may be well to add here, to prevent misconception,
that the higher clairvoyance follows, instead of preceding, the growth of
mind, and cannot appear until the organisation of the astral body, in
contradistinction to the astral sheath, has been carried to a
considerable height. When this is effected by the play of intellect and the
perfecting of the physical intellectual apparatus, then the true astral
senses [191] before mentioned, called the chakras, or wheels, from
their whirling appearance, are gradually evolved. These develop on the
astral plane, as astral senses and organs, and are built and controlled from
the mental plane, as were the brain-centres from the astral. Consciousness
is then working on the mental plane and building its astral mechanism, as
before it worked on the astral plane, building its physical mechanism. But
now it works with far greater power and greater understanding, having
unfolded so many of its powers. Further, it shapes centres in the physical
body from the sympathetic and cerebrospinal systems, to act as physical
plane apparatus for bringing into the brain-consciousness the vibrations
from the higher planes. As these centres are vivified, knowledge is “brought
through”, i.e., is available for the use of consciousness
working in the physical nervous system. This, as said, is the higher
clairvoyance, the intelligent and self-directed exercise of the powers of
consciousness in the astral body.
In this upward-climbing, then, the [192] powers of
consciousness are awakened on the physical plane, and are then severally
awakened on the astral and the mental. The astral and mental sheaths must be
highly evolved ere they can be farther developed into the subtle body,
acting independently on the higher planes, and then building for itself the
necessary apparatus for the exercise of these higher powers in the physical
world. And even here when the apparatus is ready, built by pure thought and
pure desire, it must be vivified on the physical plane by the fire of
Kundalini, aroused and directed by the consciousness working in the physical
brain. [193]
CHAPTER IX.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. CONSCIOUSNESS.
For an immense period of time - throughout the later
vegetable and the animal evolution, and throughout the evolution of normal
humanity up to the present time - the astral, or desire, sheath is, as we
have seen, subordinate to the physical, so far as the workings of
consciousness are concerned. We have now to trace the unfolding of the
consciousness, of the life becoming aware of its surroundings. While the
nervous system is truly said to be created from the astral plane, it
is none the less created for the expression of consciousness on the
physical plane, and for its effective working thereon. It is there that
consciousness is first to become Self-consciousness. [194]
When the vibrations of the outer world play on the
physical sheath of the infolded infant Self, the Jivatma, the Ray of the
Monad, they at first cause responsive thrills within that Self, a dawning
consciousness within itself, a feeling, unrelated by that Self to anything
outside, though caused by impacts from outside. It is a change outside the
enveloping film of the Self, clothed in sheaths of denser matter, which
outside change causes a change within that envelope, and this change causes
an act of consciousness - consciousness of change, of a changed condition.
It may be an attraction, a drawing towards, exerted by an external object
over the sheaths, reaching to the envelope of the Self, causing a slight
expansion in the envelope, following an expansion in the sheaths, towards
the attractive object; and this expansion is a change of condition, and
causes a feeling, an act of consciousness. Or it may be a repulsion, a
driving away, again exerted by an external object against the sheaths,
reaching to the envelope of the Self, causing a slight shrinking in the
envelope, following the shrinking [195] away of the sheaths from the
repellent object; and this shrinking is also a change of condition, and
causes a corresponding change in consciousness.
When we examine the conditions of the enveloping sheaths
under an attraction and a repulsion, we find they are entirely different.
When the impact of an external object causes a rhythmical vibration in these
envelopes - that is, when their materials are made to arrange themselves in
undulating regular lines of rarefaction and densification - this arrangement
of the enclosing matter permits an interchange of life between the two
objects that have come into contact, and in proportion to the correspondence
of the rarefactions and densifications in the two is the fulness of the
interchange. This interchange, this partial union of two separated Lives
through the separating sheaths of matter, is “pleasure”, and the going out
of the Lives towards each other is “attraction”; however complicated
pleasure may become, herein lies its essence; it is a sense of “moreness”,
of increased, expanded life. The more fully developed the Life, the [196]
greater the pleasure in the realisation of this moreness, in the
expansion into the other Life, and each of the Lives thus uniting gains the
moreness by union with the other. As rhythmical vibrations and corresponding
rarefactions and densifications make this interchange of life possible, it
is truly said that “harmonious vibrations are pleasurable”. When, on the
contrary, the impact of an external object causes a jangle of vibrations in
the envelopes of the impacted object - that is, when the materials are made
to arrange themselves irregularly, moving in conflicting directions,
striking themselves against each other - the contained Life is shut in,
isolated, its normal out-flowing rays are checked, intercepted, even turned
back on themselves. This check to normal action is “pain”, increasing with
the energy of the in-driving, and the result of the driving-in process is
“repulsion”. Here, also, the more fully developed the Life, the greater the
pain in this violent reversal of its normal action, and in the sense of
frustration that accompanies the reversal. Hence, again, “inharmonious
vibrations are [197] painful”. Be it observed that this is true of
all the sheaths, although the astral sheath becomes specialised as the
recipient of the class of sensations later called pleasurable and painful.
Constantly, in the course of evolution, a general life-function thus becomes
specialised, and a particular organ is normally used for its exercise. The
astral body being the vehicle of desires, the need for its special
susceptibility to pleasure and pain is obvious.
To return from this brief digression into the state of
the envelopes to the germ of consciousness itself; we shall find it
important to notice that there is herein no “awareness” of an external
object, no such awareness as is ordinarily conveyed by the use of the word.
Consciousness, as yet, knows nothing of an outer and an inner, of an object
and a subject; the divine germ is now becoming conscious. It becomes
consciousness with this change of conditions, with this movement in
the sheaths, this expanding and contracting, for consciousness exists only
in, and by, change. Here, then, for the separated divine germ is the birth
of consciousness; [198] it is born of change, of motion; where and
when this first change occurs, there, consciousness, for that separated
germ, is born.
The mere clothing of this germ with successive envelopes
of matter on successive planes gives rise to these first vague changes
within the germ that are the birthing of consciousness; and none of us may
count the ages which roll on as these changes become more defined, and as
the envelopes become more definitely shaped by the ceaseless impacts from
without, and the no less ceaseless responsive thrillings from within. The
state of consciousness at this stage can only be described as one of
“feeling”, feeling becoming slowly more and more definite, and assuming two
phases, pleasure and pain - pleasure with expansion, pain with contraction.
And, be it noted, this primary state of consciousness does not manifest the
three well-known aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity, even in the most
germinal stage; “feeling” precedes these, and belongs to consciousness as a
whole, though in later stages of evolution it shows itself so much in
connexion with the Will-Desire aspect [199] as to become almost
identified with it; in the plural, as feelings, indeed, it belongs to that
aspect, which is the first to arise as a differentiation within
consciousness.
As the states of pleasure and pain become more definitely
established in consciousness, they give rise to the three aspects: with the
fading away of pleasure there is a continuance of the attraction in
consciousness, a memory, and this becomes a dim groping after it, a vague
following of the vanishing feeling, a movement - too indefinite to be
called an effort - to hold it, to retain it; similarly with the fading away
of pain there is a continuance of the repulsion in consciousness, again a
memory, and this becomes an equally vague movement to push it away. These
states give birth to: Memory of past pleasure and pain, indicating the
germination o the Thought-aspect; longing to experience again pleasure, or
avoid pain, the germination of the Desire-aspect; this stimulating a
movement, the germination of the Activity-aspect. Thus Consciousness is
differentiated into its three aspects from its primary unity of Feeling,
repeating [200] in miniature the kosmic process in which the triple
Divinity ever arises from the One Existence. The Hermetic axiom is here, as
always, exemplified: “As above, so below”.
2. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
Desire, thus germinated, gropes after pleasure, not, as
yet, after the pleasure giving object; for consciousness is as yet limited
within its own kingdom, is conscious only in the within, is conscious only
of changes in that within. It has not yet turned its attention outwards, is
not yet conscious even that there is an outwards. Meanwhile that outwards of
which it is not aware is continually hammering at its vehicles, and most
vehemently at its physical vehicle, the vehicle most easily affected from
outside, and with most difficulty from within. Gradually the persistent and
violent shocks from outside draw its attention in their direction; their
irregularity, their unexpectedness, their constant assaults, their
unrelatedness to its slow, groping [201] movements, their unexplained
appearances and disappearances, are in opposition to its dim sense of
regularity, continuity, of being always there, of slow surges of change
rising and falling within what is not yet to it “himself”; there is a
consciousness of difference, and this grows into a sense of a
something that remains within a changing hurly-burly, a sense of a “within”
and a “without”, or, to speak more accurately, of a “without” and a
“within”, since it is the hammering outside that causes the difference of
“without” and “within” to arise in consciousness. “Without” comes first, if
only by a fraction of time, because its recognition alone makes possible and
inevitable the recognition of “within”. So long as there is nothing else, we
cannot speak of “within”; it is everything. But when “without” forces
itself on consciousness, “within” rises up as its inevitable opposite. This
sense of a “without” arises necessarily at the points of contact between the
continuing consciousness and the changing hurly-burly; that is, in its
physical vehicle, its physical [202] body. Herein is slowly
established the awareness of “others”, and with the establishment of this
“others” comes the establishment also of “I”, over against them. He becomes
conscious of things outside instead of being conscious only of changes, and
then he comes to know that the changes are in “himself”, and that the things
are outside himself. Self-consciousness is born.
This process of perceiving objects is a complex one. It
must be remembered that objects contact the body in various ways, and the
body receives some of their vibrations by the parts differentiated to
receive such vibrations. The eye, the ear, the skin, the tongue, the nose,
receive various vibratory waves, and certain cells in the organs affected
vibrate similarly in response. The waves set up pass to the sense-centres in
the brain, and thence to the knowledge-senses in the astral sheath; there
the changes in consciousness take place which correspond with them, as
explained in Chapter II., and they are sent on as these changes, the
sensations of colour, [203] outline, sound, form, taste, smell,
etc., still as separate sensations, to consciousness working in the mental
sheath, and are there combined by it into a single image, unified into a
single perception of an object. This blending of the various streams into
one, this synthesis of sensations, is a specialty of the mind. Hence, in
Indian psychology, the mind is often called “the sixth sense”, “the senses,
of which mind is the sixth”.
When we consider the five organs of action in relation to the mind, we find
a reverse process going on; the mind pictures a certain act as a whole, and
thereby brings about a corresponding set of vibrations in the mental sheath;
these vibrations are reproduced in the motor senses in the astral sheath;
they break it up, analyse it into its constituent parts, and these are
accompanied with vibrations in the matter of the motor centres; these, in
turn, are repeated in the motor centres in the brain as separate waves; the
motor centres distribute these waves through the nervous system to the
various muscles that [204] must co-operate to produce the action.
Regarded in this double relation the mind becomes the eleventh sense, “the
ten senses and the one”.
3. REAL AND UNREAL.
With the change of consciousness into Self-consciousness
comes the recognition of a difference which later, in the more evolved
Self-consciousness, becomes the difference between the objective or “real” -
in the ordinary western sense of the word - and the subjective or “unreal”,
and “imaginary”. To the jelly-fish, the sea anemone, the hydra, waves and
currents, sunshine and blast, food and sand touching the periphery or the
tentacles, are not “real”, are registered only as changes in consciousness,
as in truth they are also to the body of the human infant; I say registered,
not recognised, since no mental observation, analysis, and judgment are
possible in the lower stages of evolution. These creatures are not yet
sufficiently conscious of “others”, to be conscious of [205]
“themselves”; and they only feel changes as occurring within the circle of
their own ill-defined consciousness. The external world grows into “reality”
as the consciousness, separating itself from it, realises its own
separateness, changes from a vague “am” into a definite “I
am”.
As this self-conscious “I” gradually gains in clearness
of self-identification, of separateness, and distinguishes between changes
within himself and the impact of external objects, he is ready to take the
next step of relating the changes within himself to the varying impacts from
outside. Then follows the development of Desire for pleasure into definite
desires for pleasure-giving objects, followed by thoughts as to how to
obtain them ; these lead to efforts to move after them when in sight, to
search for them when absent, and the consequent slow evolution of the outer
vehicle into a body well-organised for movement, for pursuit, for capture.
The desire for the absent, the search, the success or failure, all impress
on the developing consciousness the difference [206] between his
desires and thoughts, of which he is, or can be, always conscious, and the
external objects which come and go without any reference to himself; and
with disconcerting irrelevance to his feelings. He distinguishes these as
“real”, as having an existence which he does not control, and which affects
him without any regard to his likings or objections. And this sense of
“reality” is first established in the physical world, as being the one in
which these contacts between the “others” and the “I” are first recognised
by consciousness. Self-consciousness begins its evolution in and through
the physical body, and has its earliest centre in the brain.
The normal man, at the present stage of evolution, still
identifies himself with this brain-centre of Self-consciousness, and is
hence restricted to the waking consciousness, or consciousness working in
the cerebro-spinal system, knowing himself as “I”, distinctly and
consecutively, only on the physical plane, that is, in the waking state. On
this plane he is definitely self-conscious, distinguishing [207]
between himself and the outer world, between his own thoughts and outside
appearances, without hesitation; hence on this plane, and on this plane
only, external things are to him “real”, “objective”, “outside himself”.
On other planes, the astral and the mental, he is, as
yet, conscious but not self-conscious; he recognises changes within himself,
but does not yet distinguish between the self-initiated changes and those
caused by impacts from without on his astral and mental vehicles. To him
they are all alike changes within himself. Hence all phenomena of
consciousness occurring on super-physical planes - planes on which
Self-consciousness is not yet definitely established - the normal, average
man calls “unreal”, “subjective”, “inside himself”, just as the jellyfish,
if he were a philosopher, would designate the phenomena of the physical
plane. He regards astral or mental phenomena as the result of his
“imagination”, i.e., as forms of his own creating, and not as the
results of impacts upon his astral or mental vehicle from external worlds,
subtler [208] indeed, but as “real” and “objective” as the external
physical world. That is, he is not yet sufficiently evolved to have reached
self-realisation on those planes, and thus to have become capable of
objectivising there the external worlds. He is only conscious there of the
changes in himself, the changes in consciousness, and the external world is
consequently to him merely the play of his own desires and thoughts. He is,
in fact, an infant on the astral and mental planes. [209]
CHAPTER X.
HUMAN STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS.
WE have already noticed the fact that many activities of
consciousness, once purposive, have become automatic, and have gradually
sunk below the “threshold of consciousness”. The processes which maintain
the life of the body - such as the beating of the heart, the expansion and
contraction of the heart, the processes of digestion, etc. - have all fallen
into a region of consciousness on which the attention of consciousness is
not fixed. And there are innumerable phenomena, not directly connected with
the [210] maintenance of bodily life, which also inhabit this dim
region. The sympathetic system is a storehouse of traces left by long-past
events - events not belonging to our present life at all, but events that
passed hundreds of centuries ago, that occurred in long-past lives, when
the Jivatma which is our Self was abiding in savage human bodies, and even
in the bodies of animals. Many a causeless terror, many a midnight panic,
many a surge of furious anger, many an impulse of vindictive cruelty, many a
rush of passionate revenge, is flung up from the depths of that dark sea of
the sub-conscious which rolls within us, concealing many a wreck, many a
skeleton of our past. Handed down by the astral consciousness of the time to
its physical instrument for putting into action, the ever-sensitive plate
of the permanent atom has caught and photographed them, and has registered
them in the recesses of the nervous system, life after life. The
consciousness is off guard; or a strong vibration from another strikes us;
or some event reproduces circumstances that start vibrations that arouse; in
one way or [211] another, the slumbering possibilities are awakened,
and hurling itself upwards into the light of day comes the long-buried
passion. There too hide the instincts which oft overpower reason, instincts
that were once life-preserving efforts, or the results of experiences in
which our body of the time perished, and the soul registered the result for
future guidance. Instincts of love for the opposite sex, outcome of
innumerable unions. Instincts of paternal and maternal love, poured out in
many generations. Instincts of self-defence, developed in countless
battles. Instincts of taking undue advantage, offspring of numberless
cheatings and intrigues. And yet again there lurk there many vibrations that
belong to events, and feelings, and desires, and thoughts of our present
life, experienced and forgotten, but lying near the surface, ready for
upcall. Time would fail to enumerate the contents of this relic-chamber of
an immemorial past, containing old bones fit only for the dust-bin, side by
side with interesting fragments of earlier days, with tools still useful for
our [212] present needs. Over the door of the relic-chamber is
written: “Fragments of the Past”. For the sub-consciousness belongs to the
Past, as the waking-consciousness to the Present, as the
super-consciousness to the Future.
Another part of the sub-conscious in us is composed of
the contents of all the consciousnesses that use our bodies as fields of
evolution - atoms, molecules, cells of many grades. Some of the queer
spectres and dainty figures that arise from the sub-conscious in us do not
belong to us at all, but are the dim gropings, and foolish fears, and pretty
fancies, of the Units of consciousness at a lower stage of evolution than
our own, that are our guests, inhabiting our body as a lodging-house.
In this part of the sub-conscious go on the wars, waged
by one set of creatures in our blood against another set, which do not enter
our consciousness, save when their results appear as diseases.
Human sub-consciousness, working on the physical plane,
is thus composed of very varied elements, and it is necessary [213]
thus to analyse and to understand it, in order to distinguish its workings
from those of the true human super-consciousness, which resembles the
instincts in its sudden irruptions into consciousness, but differs entirely
from them in its nature and place in evolution, belonging to the future
while they belong to the past. These two differ as atrophied vestigial
organs, recording the history of the past, differ from germinal rudimentary
organs, indicating the progress of the future.
We have also seen that consciousness, working on the
astral plane, built up and is still building the nervous system for its
instrument on the physical plane; but this also does not form part of what
is called the normal waking consciousness at this stage of evolution. In the
average man, consciousness, working on the mental plane, is now building up
and organising the astral body as its instrument in the future on the astral
plane; but this again does not form part of the waking-consciousness. What
then is the human waking-consciousness? [214]
2. THE WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS.
The waking-consciousness is consciousness working on the
mental plane and on the astral, using mental and astral matter as its
vehicle, seated in the physical brain as Self-consciousness,
and using that brain with its connected nervous system as its instrument for
willing, knowing, and acting on the physical plane. In waking-consciousness
the brain is always active, always vibrating; its activity may be stimulated
as a transmitting organ from outside through the senses, or it may be
stimulated by the consciousness from the inner planes; but it is ceaselessly
active, responding to the without and the within. In the average man, the
brain is the only part in which consciousness has definitely become
Self-consciousness, the only part in which he feels himself as “I”, and
asserts himself [215] as a separate individual unit. In all the rest
of him consciousness is still vaguely groping about, answering to external
impacts but not yet defining them, conscious as to changes in its own
conditions, but not yet conscious of “others” and “myself”. In the more
advanced members of the human family, consciousness, working on the astral
and mental planes, is very rich and active, but its attention is not yet
turned outwards to the astral and mental worlds in which it is living, and
its activities find their outer expression in Self-consciousness on the
physical plane, to which all the outer attention in consciousness is turned,
and into which is poured as much of the higher workings as it is capable of
receiving. From time to time, powerful impacts on the astral or mental plane
create so violent a vibration in consciousness, that a wave of thought or
emotion surges outwards into the waking consciousness and throws it into
such furious motion, that its normal activities are swept away, submerged,
and the man is hurried into action which is not directed or [216]
controlled by Self-consciousness. We shall consider this further when we
come to the super-physical consciousness.
Waking-consciousness may then be defined as that part of
the total consciousness which is functioning in the brain and nervous
system, and which is definitely Self-conscious. We may conceive of
consciousness as symbolised by a great light, which shines through a glass
globe inserted in a ceiling, illuminating the room below, while the light
itself fills the room above, and sheds its radiance freely in every
direction. Consciousness is as a great egg of light, of which only one end
is inserted into the brain, and that end is the waking-consciousness. As
consciousness becomes Self-consciousness on the astral plane, and the brain
develops sufficiently to answer to its vibrations, astral consciousness will
become part of the waking-consciousness. Later still, when consciousness
becomes Self-consciousness on the mental plane, and the brain develops
sufficiently to answer to its vibrations, the waking-consciousness will
include mental consciousness. And [217] so on, until all the
consciousness on our five planes has evolved to waking-consciousness.
This enlarging of waking-consciousness is accompanied
with development in the atoms of the brain, as well as with the development
of certain organs in the brain, and of the connexions between cells. For the
inclusion of the astral Self-consciousness, it is necessary that the
pituitary body should be evolved beyond its present condition, and that the
fourth set of spirillae in the atoms should be perfected. For the inclusion
of the mental, the pineal gland must be rendered active, and the fifth set
of spirillae brought into thorough working order. So long as these physical
development remain unaccomplished, Self-consciousness may be evolved on the
astral and mental planes, but it remains super-consciousness and its
workings do not express themselves through the brain, and thus become part
of the waking-consciousness.
Waking-consciousness is limited and conditioned by the
brain so long as a man [218] possesses a physical body, and any
injury to the brain, any lesion, any disturbance, at once interferes with
its manifestation. However highly developed may be a man’s consciousness, he
is limited by his brain so far as its manifestations on the physical plane
are concerned, and if that brain be ill-formed or ill-developed, his
waking-consciousness will be poor and restricted.
With the loss of the physical body, the connotation of
waking-consciousness changes, and that which is here said of the physical
conditions is transferred to the astral. We may therefore enlarge our
original definition to the general statement: waking-consciousness is that
part of the total consciousness which is working through its outermost
vehicle, that is, which is manifesting on the lowest plane then touched by
that consciousness.
In the earlier stages of human evolution, there is little
activity in consciousness on the inner planes except as stimulated from the
outer; but as Self-consciousness grows more vivid on the physical plane, it
enriches with ever-increasing rapidity the [219] content of
consciousness on the inner; consciousness, working upon its content, rapidly
evolves, until its internal powers far outstrip the possibilities of their
manifestation through the brain, and the latter becomes a limitation and a
hindrance instead of feeder and a stimulator. Then the pressure of
consciousness on its physical instrument becomes at times perilously great,
causing a nervous tension which endangers the equilibrium of the brain,
unable to adapt itself with sufficient rapidity to the powerful waves
beating upon it. Hence the truth of the saying “Great wits to madness near
allied”. Only the highly and delicately organised brain can enable the
“great wits” to manifest themselves on the physical plane; but such a brain
is the one most easily thrown off its balance by the strong waves of these
same “great wits”, and this is “madness”. Madness - the incapacity of the
brain to respond regularly to vibrations - may indeed be due to lack or
arrest of development, lack or arrest of brain organisation, and such
madness is not allied to “great wits”; but it is a [220] significant
and pregnant fact that a brain in advance of normal evolution, developing
new and delicately balanced combinations for the enriched expression of
consciousness on the physical plane, is the brain of all others that may
most easily be disabled by the throwing out of gear of some part of its
mechanism not yet sufficiently established to resist a strain. To this again
we must return in considering the super-physical consciousness.
3. THE SUPER-PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Psychologists in the West have lately betaken themselves
to the study of states of consciousness other than the waking; these are
variously designated as “abnormal”, “sub-conscious”, “inconscient”, and
often as “dream-consciousness” - because the dream is the most generally
recognised and universal form of other-consciousness. At first there was a
tendency to regard these states as the result of disordered brain
conditions, and this view is still largely held; but the more advanced
psychologists are out-growing this narrow [221] idea, and are
beginning to study such states as definite manifestations of consciousness
under conditions not yet understood, but not necessarily disorderly; some
definitely recognise a “larger consciousness”, a part only of which can
find expression in the brain as at present evolved. In the East, this state
of other consciousness has for long ages been regarded as higher than the
waking state, as that of the consciousness set free from the narrow limits
of the physical brain, and acting in a subtler and more plastic and
congenial medium. Dream has been regarded as one phase of this
superphysical activity, and as a touch with higher worlds; and means have
been taken to arouse Self-consciousness in the dream-world, to set
Self-consciousness, clothed in its higher vestures, free from the physical
body at will; so that, instead of the vague and confused answers to impacts
from higher worlds in undeveloped dream states, Self-consciousness may be
established therein with clear and definite vision. To effect this,
Self-consciousness in its higher vehicles must be at first [222]
removed from the physical body and made active on the astral plane; for
until it knows itself out of the dense body, it cannot separate out in the
“dream”, the extra-physical experiences from the chaotic fragments of
physical experiences mixed up with them in the brain. As clear water poured
into a muddy bucket becomes mixed up with the mud, so does an astral
experience, poured down into a brain full of fragments of past physical
happenings, become blurred, confused, incongruous.
Eastern psychology hence sought after methods of separating the
Self-consciousness from its physical vehicle, and it is interesting to
observe that these methods, wholly different as they are from those used in
the West, and directed to the intensifying of consciousness, reduce the body
to the same state of quiescence as that induced by physical methods in the
West, when the western psychologist betakes himself to the study of
other-consciousness.
Super-consciousness includes the whole [223] of
the consciousness above the waking-consciousness; that is, all on the higher
planes that does not express itself on the physical plane as
Self-consciousness working through the brain. It is therefore a great
complexity, and covers a large number of phenomena. Dream, as said, is part
of it; so are all the workings of the astral consciousness asserting
themselves as premonitions, warnings, visions of happenings distant in space
or time, vague touches from other worlds, sudden intuitions as regards
character or events; also all the workings of the mental consciousness,
lower or higher, that appear as intuitive grasp of truths, sudden insight
into causal connexions, inspirations - mental or moral - flashes of genius,
visions of high artistic beauty, etc., etc. These irruptions of the
super-consciousness into the physical plane have the character of
unexpectedness, of conviction, of imperious authority, of lack of apparent
cause. They are unrelated, or only indirectly related, to the contents of
the waking-consciousness, and do not justify themselves to it, but simply
impose themselves on it. [224]
To bring the super-consciousness into manifestation on
the physical plane, it is necessary - in the early stages - to reduce the
brain to inactivity, to render the sense-organs unresponsive to physical
impacts, and, by expelling the conscious entity from the body, reduce that
body to the state called trance. Trance is but the sleep-state, artificially
or abnormally induced; whether produced by mesmeric, hypnotic, medicinal, or
other means, the result is the same, so far as the physical body is
concerned. But the result on the other planes will depend entirely on the
evolution of consciousness on those planes, and a highly evolved
consciousness would not permit the use of hypnotic or medicinal means -
unless, perhaps, of an anaesthetic for an operation - though such a one
might allow, under exceptional circumstances, the use of mesmerism in
producing the trance state. Trance may also be produced by action from the
higher planes, as by intense concentration of thought, or by rapt
contemplation of an object of devotion, inducing exstasy. These are the
means [225] used from time immemorial by the Raja Yogis of the East,
and the exstasy of the Saint in the West is produced by this rapt
contemplation; the trance is indistinguishable from that produced by the
means above referred to in the Salpetriere and elsewhere. The Hatha Yogis
also reach this same trance condition, but by means much resembling the last
named, - by staring at a black spot on a white ground, at the point of the
nose, and other similar practices.
But when other than physical vision and physical tests
are used, how great is the difference between the super-physical conditions
of consciousness in the hypnotised subject and in the Yogi. H. P. Blavatsky
has well described this difference: “In the trance state the Aura changes
entirely, the seven prismatic colours being no longer discernible. In sleep
also they are not all ‘at home’. For those which belong to the spiritual
elements in the man, viz., yellow, Buddhi; indigo, Higher Manas; and
the blue of the Auric Envelope, will be either hardly discernible or
altogether missing. The Spiritual Man is free during sleep, [226] and
though his physical memory may not become aware of it, lives, robed in his
highest essence, in realms on other planes, in realms which are the land of
reality, called dreams on our plane of illusion. A good clairvoyant,
moreover, if he had an opportunity of seeing a Yogi in the trance state and
a mesmerised subject side by side, would learn an important lesson in
Occultism. He would learn to know the difference between self-induced trance
and a hypnotic state resulting from extraneous influence In the Yogi, the
‘principles’ of the lower quaternary disappear entirely. Neither red, green,
red-violet, nor the auric blue of the body are to be seen; nothing but
hardly perceptible vibrations of the golden-hued Prana principle, and a
violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards from the head, in the region
where the Third Eye rests, and culminating in a point. If the student
remembers that the true violet, or the extreme end of the spectrum, is no
compound colour of red and blue, but a homogeneous colour with vibrations
seven times more rapid than those of the red, and that the golden [227]
hue is the essence of the three yellow lines from orange-red to
yellow-orange and yellow, he will understand the reason why; he [the Yogi]
lives in his own Auric Body, now become the vehicle of Buddhi-Manas. On the
other hand, in a subject in an artificially produced hypnotic or mesmeric
trance, an effect of unconscious when not of conscious Black Magic, unless
produced by a high Adept, the whole set of the principles will be present,
with the Higher Manas paralysed, Buddhi severed from it through that
paralysis, and the red-violet Astral Body entirely subjected to the Lower
Manas and Kama Rupa”.
This difference in the appearance of the entranced
person, as seen by the clear-seeing eye, is connected with a difference of
immense importance in the after outcome of the trance. The Yogi, who thus
leaves the body, leaves it in full Self-consciousness, visits the higher
worlds in full possession of his faculties, and, on returning to the dense
body, imprints on the evolved brain the memory of his experiences. The
little evolved person, [228] entranced, “loses consciousness”; when
his Self-consciousness is not developed on the higher planes, his awareness
is not there turned outwards; he is practically as much asleep there, in the
astral and mental worlds, as he is in the physical plane, and on awaking
from the trance he knows nothing of what has occurred during its
continuance, either here or elsewhere.
If, however, the subject be sufficiently evolved, as most
people are at this stage of evolution, to be Self-conscious on the astral
plane, then others may be profited by questioning him while entranced. For
in the artificially induced trance state, wherein the brain is cut off from
the normal action and reaction between itself and its environment, it
becomes an instrument, however inadequate, of the super-physical
consciousness. Isolated from its physical environment, rendered incapable of
responding to its accustomed stimuli from outside, cut off from its lower
attachments while remaining united to its higher, it continues to answer to
the impacts from above, and can do this the [229] more effectively
since none of its energies are running out into the physical plane. This is
the essence of the trance state. In the forcible closure of the avenues of
the senses, through which its forces pour out into the external world, these
forces remain available as servants of the superphysical consciousness. In
the silence thus imposed on the physical plane, the voices of the other
planes can make themselves heard.
In the hypnotic trance, a quickening of the mental
faculties is observed: memory is found to embrace a far larger area, for the
faint pulsings left by far-off events become audible when the stronger
pulsings from the recent are temporarily stilled; people forgotten in the
waking state are remembered in the trance; languages known in childhood,
but since lost, reappear; trivial events re-arise. Sometimes the perceptive
powers range over a larger area; distant occurrences are seen, vision
pierces through physical barriers, far-off speech becomes audible. Fragments
of other planes are also occasionally glimpsed, much mixed up with the
thought-forms [230] of waking hours. A whole literature exists on
this subject, and can be studied by the investigator.
It has also been found that the results of deeper trance
are not identical with those of the more superficial. As the trance deepens,
higher strata of the super-physical consciousness manifest themselves in the
brain. The famous case of Leonie I., II. and III. is well-known; and it
should be observed that Leonie I. knew nothing of Leonie II. and III.; that
Leonie II. knew Leonie I. but did not know Leonie III.; that Leonie III.
knew both Leonie I. and II. That is, the higher knows the lower, while the
lower does not know the higher - a most pregnant fact.
In the mesmeric trance, the higher phenomena are more
easily obtained than in the hypnotic, and, in this, very clear statements
may be had of the phenomena of the astral and even of the mental plane -
where the “subject” is well-developed - and sometimes glimpses are gained of
past lives.
When we see that the exclusion of [231] the
physical plane is the condition for these manifestations of the
super-physical consciousness, we begin to understand the rationale of the
methods of Yoga, practised in the East. When the methods are physical, as in
Hatha Yoga, the ordinary hypnotic trance is most often obtained, and the
subject, on re-awakening, remembers nothing of his experiences. The method
of the Raja Yoga, in which the consciousness is withdrawn from the brain by
intense concentration, leads the student to continuity of consciousness on
the successive planes, and he remembers his super-physical experiences on
his return to the waking state. Both in the West and in the East, the same
cessation of waking-consciousness is aimed at, in order to obtain traces of
the super-physical consciousness, or as the western psychologist would say,
from the unconscious in man. The eastern method, however, with thousands of
years of experience behind it, yields results incomparably greater in the
realms of the super-physical consciousness, and establishes, on the sure
basis of reiterated [232] experiences, the independence of
consciousness as regards its physical vehicle.
The exstasy and the visions of Saints, in all ages and in
all creeds, afford another example of the irruptions from the “unconscious”.
In these, prolonged and absorbing prayer, or contemplation, is the means for
producing the necessary brain-condition. The avenues of the senses become
closed by the intensity of the inner concentration, and the same state is
reached spasmodically and involuntarily which the practiser of Raja Yoga
seeks deliberately to attain. Hence we find that devotees of all faiths
ascribe their visions to the favour of the Deity worshipped, and not to the
fact that they have produced in themselves a passive brain-condition, which
enables the super-physical consciousness to imprint on that brain the sights
and sounds of the higher worlds.
Prof. William James, in his Varieties of Religious
Experience, points out that some of the most striking of these
irruptions from the “unconscious” are cases of “sudden conversions”, in
which [233] a sudden thought, or vision, or voice, has changed at
once and completely the whole course of a man’s waking life. He rightly
argues that a force, sufficiently powerful to produce such effects, cannot
be lightly waved aside, or contemptuously ignored, by any serious student of
human consciousness. This whole class of psychical phenomena demands careful
and scientific study, and promises a rich harvest of results, as to the
super-physical consciousness, to repay the serious investigator.
As against this view, however, it is urged that these
facts are observed in connexion with morbid nervous states, and that the
subjects are hysterical, over-excited persons, whose experiences are
vitiated by their condition. In the first place, this is not always true;
the eastern Raja Yogis are persons distinguished for their calmness and
serenity, and some of the cases of conversion have been those of worldly and
capable men. Let it be granted, however, that in the majority of cases the
nervous condition is morbid, and the brain [234] overstrained, what
then? The normal brain is admittedly evolved to the point of responding to
the vibrations of the physical world, and of transmitting these upwards, and
of transmitting downwards mental and astral vibrations connected with these,
from the higher vehicles. It is not yet evolved to the point of receiving
without disturbance very violent vibrations from the higher planes, nor of
responding at all to the vibrations set up in the subtler vehicles by the
external phenomena of their own planes. Very violent emotions of joy, pain,
grief, terror, often prove too much for the normal brain, causing severe
headache, hysteria, and even nervous collapse. It is, therefore, no wonder
that the very violent emotion which causes what is called a conversion
should often be accompanied by similar nervous distress. The important point
is, that when the nervous upset has passed, the effect - the changed
attitude towards life - remains. The nervous disturbance is due to the
inadequacy of the physical brain to bear the violent and rapid vibrations
dashing down upon it; the [235] permanently changed attitude is due
to the steady pressure of the super-physical consciousness, continuously
exerted. Where the super-physical consciousness is not sufficiently
developed to exert this continuous pressure, the converted person “falls
from grace” as the surge of emotion ebbs away.
In cases of visions, and like phenomena, we have already
seen that they may occur when a form of trance has been produced. But
without this, such phenomena may occur, in cases where the brain is in a
state of tension, either from some temporary cause, or from the fact that
its evolution has gone beyond the normal. Strong emotion may increase the
nervous tension to the point where response to direct astral vibrations
becomes possible, and thus an astral happening becomes visible or audible.
The reaction from the strain will probably show itself as nervous
disturbance. When the brain is more highly evolved than the ordinary brain,
has become more complicated and more sensitive, astral happenings may be
felt constantly, and this strain may well be [236] somewhat greater
than the nervous system is quite fitted to bear, in addition to bearing the
ordinary wear and tear of modern civilisation. Hence, again, hysteria and
other forms of nervous distress are likely to accompany the visions.
But these facts do not take away from the importance
of the experiences, as facts in consciousness.
Rather, perhaps, do they increase their importance, as
showing the way in which evolution works in the action of the environment on
an organism. The reiterated impacts of external forces stimulate the growing
organism, and very often temporarily overstrain it; but the very strain
forces forward its evolution. The crest of the evolutionary wave must
always consist of abnormal organisms; the steady, normal, safe, average
organisms follow on behind; they are most respectable, but perhaps not so
interesting as the pioneers, and most certainly not so instructive as
regards the future. As a matter of fact, the forces of the astral plane are
constantly playing vigorously on the human brain, in order that it may
develop as a fuller [237] vehicle of consciousness, and a sensitive
brain, in the transitional state, is apt to be thereby thrown a little out
of gear with the world of its past. It is probable that a good many
activities to which thought is at present directed will, in the future, be
carried on automatically, and will gradually sink below the threshold of
the waking consciousness, as have done various functions, once performed
purposively.
As these changes go on, the subtler vibrations must
inevitably show themselves in an increasing number in the most delicately
equilibrated brains, those which are not normal, inasmuch as these -
on the crest of evolution - will be those most capable of responding. Dr.
Maudsley writes: “What right have we to believe Nature under any obligation
to do her work by means of complete minds only? She may find an incomplete
mind a more suitable instrument for a particular purpose”.
And Prof. James himself remarks: “If there were such a thing as inspiration
[238] from a higher realm, it might well be that the neurotic
temperament would furnish the chief condition of the requisite receptivity”.
When we once recognise that forces subtler than the
physical must necessitate for their expression a more refined vehicle than
the brain organised for the reception of the physical, we shall cease to be
troubled or distressed when we find that the super-physical forces often
find their readiest expression through brains that are more or less out of
gear with the physical plane. And we shall understand that the abnormal
physical symptoms accompanying their manifestations in no way derogate from
the value of these energies, nor from the importance of the part they will
play in the future of humanity. At the same time the wish must naturally
arise to find out some method whereby these forces may be enabled to
manifest themselves without risking the destruction of their physical
instrument.
This way has been found in the East in the practice of
Raja Yoga, whereby the [239] safe exercise of the higher
consciousness is sought by intense concentration. This concentration, in
itself, develops the brain as an instrument for the subtler forces, working
in the brain-cells in the manner already described in connexion with
thought.
Moreover, it slowly opens up the set of spirillae of the atom, next in order
to those now in activity, and thus adds a new organ for the higher
functioning. This process is necessarily a slow one, but it is the only safe
way of development; and, if its slowness be resented, it may be suggested as
a reason for patience that the student is endeavouring to ante-date the
atomic development of the next Round, and he can hardly expect to
accomplish this with rapidity. It is, however, this slowness of the Raja
Yogic practices which renders them somewhat unacceptable to the hurrying
West; and yet there is no other way to secure a balanced development. The
choice lies between this and the morbid nervous disturbances which accompany
the irruptions of the super-[240]physical consciousness into an
unprepared vehicle. We cannot transcend the laws of Nature; we can only try
to understand, and then to utilise them. [241]
CHAPTER XI.
THE MONAD AT WORK.
1. BUILDING HIS VEHICLES.
LET us now consider the work of the Monad in the shaping
of his vehicles, when he has, as his representatives - as himself on the
third, fourth, and fifth planes - Atma-Buddhi-Manas, with the causal body as
the receptacle, the treasure-house, of the experiences of each
incarnation.
At the close of each period of life, that is to say, at
the end of each devachanic existence, he must stimulate into renewed
activity the three successive nuclei of the bodies he is to wear during his
next life-period. First, he arouses the mental nucleus. This arousing
consists in increasing the flow of life through the spirillae. It will be
remembered that when the permanent units “went to [242] sleep”, the
normal flow of life in the spirillae lessened, and, during the whole period
of repose, this flow is small and slow.
When the time for reincarnation arrives, this flow is increased, the
spirillae thrill with life, and the permanent units, one after another,
behave as magnets, attracting round themselves appropriate matter. Thus when
the mental unit is stimulated, it begins to vibrate strongly, according to
the vibratory powers - the results of past experiences - stored up therein,
drawing towards and arranging round itself appropriate matter from the
mental plane. Just as a bar of soft iron becomes a magnet when a current is
sent through a wire encircling it, and as matter within its magnetic field
will at once arrange itself round that magnet, so is it with the permanent
mental unit. When the life-current encircles it, it becomes a magnet, and
matter within the field of its forces arranges itself round it and forms a
new mental body. The matter attracted will be according to the complexity of
the permanent unit. Not only will finer or [244] coarser matter be
attracted, but the matter must also vary in the development of the atoms
which enter into the formation of its aggregations. The molecules attracted
will be composed of atoms the vibratory energies of which are identical
with, or approach nearly to, or are in tune with, those of the attracting
unit. Hence, according to the stage of evolution reached by the man, will be
the development of the matter of his new mental vehicle. In this way,
incarnation after incarnation, a suitable mental body is built up.
Exactly the same process is repeated on the astral plane
in the building of the new astral body. The astral nucleus - the astral
permanent atom - is similarly vivified, and acts in a similar way.
The man is thus clothed with new mental and astral bodies
which express his stage of evolution, and enable whatever powers and
faculties he possesses to express themselves duly in their own worlds.
But when we come to the shaping of the body on the
physical plane a new [245] element appears. So far as the Monad is
concerned, the work is the same. He vivifies the physical nucleus - the
physical permanent atom - and it acts as a magnet like its fellows. But now
it is as though a man interfered with the attraction and arrangement of
matter within a magnetic field; the Elemental, charged with the duty of
shaping the etheric double after the model given by the Lords of Karma,
steps in and takes control of the work. The materials; indeed, may be
gathered together, as a workman might carry bricks for the building of a
house, but the builder takes the bricks, accepts or rejects, and sets them
according to the plan of the architect.
The question arises: Why this difference? Why, on
reaching the physical plane, where we might expect a repetition of the
previous processes, should an alien power take the control of the building
out of the hands of the owner of the house? The answer lies in the working
of the law of karma. On the higher planes, the sheaths express as much of
the man as is developed, and he is not there working [245] out the
results of his past relations with others. Each centre of Consciousness, on
those planes, is working within its own circle; its energies are directed
towards its own vehicles, and only so much of them as is finally expressed
through the physical vehicle acts directly upon others. These relations with
others complicate his karma on the physical plane, and the particular
physical form that he wears during a particular life - period must be
suitable for the working out of this complicated karma. Hence the need for
the adjusting interference of the Lords of Karma. Were he at a point of
evolution at which he entered into similarly direct relations with others on
other planes, similar limitations of his power to shape his vehicles on
those planes would appear. In the sphere of his external activities,
whatever it may be, these limitations must present themselves.
Hence the shaping of the physical body is done by an
authority higher than his own; he must accept the conditions of race,
nation, family, circumstances, demanded by his past activities. This
[246] limiting action of karma necessitates the building of a vehicle
which is but a partial expression of the working consciousness - partial,
not only because of the shutting off of power by the coarseness of the
material itself, but also because of the external limitations above referred
to. Much of his consciousness, even though ready for expression on the
physical plane, may thus be excluded, and only a small part of it may appear
on the physical plane as waking-consciousness.
The next point in connexion with this building that we
must consider is the special work of organising the vehicles as expressions
of consciousness, leaving apart the general building by desire and thought,
with which we are so familiar. We are concerned here with details, rather
than with broad outlines.
We know that while qualities are imparted to matter
during the descent of the Second Logos, the arrangement of these specialised
materials into relatively permanent forms belongs to His ascent. When the
Monad, through his reflexion [247] as the Spiritual Man, assumes some
directive power over his vehicles, he finds himself in possession of a form
in which the sympathetic nervous system is playing a very large part, and in
which the cerebro-spinal has not yet assumed predominance. He will have to
work up a number of connecting links between this sympathetic system
which he inherits and the centres which he must organise in his astral body,
for his future independent functioning therein. But before any independent
functioning in any higher vehicle is possible, it is necessary to carry it
to a fairly high point as a transmitting vehicle, that is a vehicle
through which he works down to his body on the physical plane. We must
distinguish between the primary work of the organisation of the mental and
astral vehicles that fits them to be transmitters of part of the
consciousness of the Spiritual Man, and the later work of developing these
same vehicles into independent bodies, in which the Spiritual Man will be
able to function on their respective planes. Hence there are two [248]
tasks to be performed: first the organisation of the mental and astral
vehicles as transmitters of consciousness to the physical body; secondly,
the organisation of these vehicles into independent bodies, in which
consciousness can function without the help of the physical body.
The astral and mental vehicles, then, must be organised
in order that the Spiritual Man may use the physical brain and nervous
system as his organ of consciousness on the physical plane. The impulse to
such use comes from the physical world by impacts upon the various
nerve-ends, causing waves of nervous energy to pass along the fibres to the
brain: these waves pass from the dense brain to the etheric, thence to the
astral, thence to the mental vehicle, arousing a response from the
consciousness in the causal body on the mental plane. That consciousness,
thus roused by impacts from without, gives rise to vibrations, which flow
down in answer from the causal body to the mental, from the mental to the
astral, from the astral to the etheric and dense physical; [249] the
waves set up electric currents in the etheric brain, and these act on the
dense matter of the nervous cells.
All these vibratory actions gradually organise the first
inchoate clouds of astral and mental matter into vehicles which serve as
effective fields for these constant actions and reactions. This process goes
on during hundreds of births, started, as we have seen, from below, but
gradually coming more and more under the control of the Spiritual Man; he
begins to direct his activities by his memories of past sensations, and
starts each activity under the impulse of these memories stimulated by
desire. As the process continues, more and more forcible direction comes
from within, and less and less directive power is exercised by the
attractions and repulsions of external objects, and thus the control of the
building up of the vehicles is largely withdrawn from the without and is
centred in the within.
As the vehicle becomes more organised, certain
aggregations of matter appear within it, at first cloudy and vague, then
[250] more and more definitely outlined. These are the future chakras,
or wheels, the sense-centres of the astral body, as distinguished from the
astral sense-centres connected with the sense-organs and centres of the
physical body.
But nothing is done to vivify these slowly growing centres for immense
periods of time, and the connexion of them with the physical body is often
delayed, even after they are functioning on the astral plane; for this
connexion can only be made from the physical vehicle, wherein the fiery
force of Kundalini resides. Before Kundalini can reach them, so that they
can pass their observations on to the physical body, they must be linked to
the sympathetic nervous system, the large ganglionic cells in that system
being the points of contact. When these links are made, the fiery current
can flow through, and observations of astral events can be transmitted fully
to the physical brain. While they can only be thus linked with the physical
vehicle, the building of them as centres and the gradual organisation
[251] of them into wheels, can be begun from any vehicle, and will be
begun in any individual from that vehicle which represents the special type
of temperament to which he belongs. According as a man belongs to one
typical temperament or another, so will be the place of the greatest
activity in the building up of all the vehicles, in the gradual making of
them into effective instruments of consciousness to be expressed on the
physical plane. This centre of activity may be in the physical, astral,
lower, or higher mental body. In any of these, or even higher still,
according to the temperamental type, this centre will be found in the
principle which marks out the temperamental type, and from that it works
“upwards” or “downwards”, shaping the vehicles so as to make them suitable
for the expression of that temperament.
2. AN EVOLVING MAN.
A special case may be taken to facilitate the
understanding of this process - a [252] temperament in which the
concrete mind predominates. We will trace the Spiritual Man through the
third, fourth, and fifth Root Races. When we look at him at work in the
third Race, we find him very infantile mentally, even though the mind is the
predominant note of his type. The surging life around him, that he can
neither understand nor master, works strongly upon him from outside, and
powerfully affects his astral vehicle. This astral vehicle will be retentive
of impressions, in consequence of the temperament, and the desires will
stimulate the infantile mind to efforts directed to their satisfaction. His
physical constitution differs from that of the fifth Race man; the
sympathetic system is still dominant, and the cerebro-spinal system
subordinate, but parts of the sympathetic system are beginning to lose much
of their effectiveness as instruments of consciousness, belonging, as such
instruments, to the stage below the human. There are two bodies in the brain
especially connected with the sympathetic system in their inception,
although now forming part of [253] the cerebro-spinal - the pineal
gland and the pituitary body. They illustrate the way in which a part of the
body may function in one manner at an early stage, may then lose its special
use and function little, if at all, and at a later stage of evolution may
again be stimulated by a higher kind of life, which will give it a new use
and function at a higher stage of evolution.
The development of these bodies belongs to the
invertebrate rather than to the vertebrate kingdom, and the “third eye” is
spoken of by biologists as the “invertebrate eye”. It is, however, still
found, as an eye among vertebrates, for a snake was lately found in
Australia which showed on the top of the head a peculiar arrangement of
semitransparent scales; when these were cut away a complete eye was found
underneath - an eye complete in its parts although not functioning. That
third eye was functioning among the Lemurians in the vague and general way
characteristic of the lower stages of evolution, and specially
characteristic of the sympathetic [254] system. As our man advanced
from the Lemurian into the Atlantean Race, the third eye ceased to function,
the brain developed round it, and it became the appendage now called the
pineal gland. As a Lemurian, he had been psychic, the sympathetic system
being largely affected by the surgings of the undeveloped astral body. As an
Atlantean, he gradually lost his psychic powers, as the sympathetic system
became subordinate and the cerebro-spinal grew stronger.
The growth of the cerebro-spinal system would be more
rapid in this Atlantean than in those of other temperaments, because the
main activity would be in the concrete mind, and would thus stimulate and
fashion it; the astral body would lose its predominance sooner, and would
become more rapidly a transmitter of mental impulses to the brain. Hence,
when our man passed on into the fifth Race, he would be peculiarly ready to
take advantage of its characteristics; he would build a large and
well-proportioned brain; he would utilise, his astral chiefly [255]
as a transmitter, and would build his chakras from the mental plane.
3. THE PITUITARY BODY AND PINEAL GLAND.
To return to the second of the two bodies mentioned above
- the pituitary body. This is regarded as developed from a primeval mouth,
in direct continuity with the alimentary canal of the invertebrates. It
ceased to function as a mouth in the vertebrates, and became a rudimentary
organ; but it has retained a peculiar function in connexion with the growth
of the body. It is active during the normal period of physical growth, and
the more actively it functions, the greater the growth of the body. In
giants it has been found that this organ is peculiarly active. Moreover, the
pituitary body sometimes again begins to function in later life, when the
bony framework of the body is set, and then causes abnormal and monstrous
growth at the free points of the body, hands, feet, nose, etc., giving rise
to disfigurement of a most distressing kind. [256]
As the cerebro-spinal system became dominant, the earlier
function of these two bodies disappeared; but these organs have a future as
well as a past. The past was connected with the sympathetic system; the
future is connected with the cerebrospinal system. As evolution goes on,
and the chakras in the astral body are vivified, the pituitary body becomes
the physical organ for astral, and later, for mental clairvoyance. Where too
great a strain is made upon the astral faculty of sight, while in the
physical body, inflammation of the pituitary body sometimes results. This
organ is the one through which the knowledge gained by astral vision is
transmitted to the brain; and it is also used in vivifying the points of
contact between the sympathetic system and the astral body, whereby a
continuity of consciousness is established between the astral and physical
planes.
The pineal gland becomes connected with one of the
chakras in the astral body, and through that with the mental body, and
serves as a physical organ for the transmission of thought from one brain
[257] to another. In thought transmission the thought may be flashed
from mind to mind, mental matter being used as the medium for transmission;
or it may be sent down to the physical brain, and by means of the pineal
gland may be sent, via the physical ether, to the pineal gland in
another brain, and thus to the receiving consciousness.
While the centre of activity lies in the dominant
principle of the man, the connexion of the chakras with the physical body
must be made, as said, from the physical plane. The object of this
connexion is not to make the astral vehicle a more efficient transmitter to
the physical body of the energies of the Spiritual Man, but to enable the
astral vehicle to be in full touch with the physical. There may be different
centres of activity for the building up of transmitting vehicles, but it is
necessary to start from the physical plane in order to bring the results of
the activities of bodies functioning on other planes within the
waking-consciousness. Hence the high importance of physical purity in diet
and other matters. [258]
People often ask: How does knowledge gained on higher
planes reach the brain, and why is it not accompanied by a memory of the
circumstances under which it was acquired? Anyone who practises meditation
regularly knows that much knowledge that he has not gained by study on the
physical plane appears in the brain. Whence comes it? It comes from the
astral or mental plane, where it was acquired, and reaches the brain in the
ordinary way above described; the consciousness has assimilated it on the
mental plane directly, or it has reached it from the astral, and sends down
thought-waves as usual. It may have been communicated by some entity on the
higher plane, who has acted directly on the mental body. But the
circumstances of the communication may not be remembered, for one of two
reasons, or for both. Most people are not what is technically called “awake”
on the astral and mental planes; that is their faculties are turned inwards,
are occupied with mental processes and emotions, and are not engaged in the
observation of the external phenomena of, those planes. [259] They
may be very receptive, and their astral and mental bodies may easily be
thrown into vibration, and the vibrations convey the knowledge which is thus
given, but their attention is not turned to the person making the
communication. As evolution goes on, people become more and more receptive
on the astral and mental planes, but do not therefore become aware of their
surroundings.
The other reason for the lack of memory is the absence of
the connecting links with the sympathetic system before mentioned. A person
may be “awake” on the astral plane and functioning actively thereon, and he
may be vividly conscious of his surroundings. But if the connecting links
between the astral and physical systems have not been made, or are not
vivified, there is a break in consciousness. However vivid may be the
consciousness on the astral plane, it cannot, until these links are
functioning, bring through and impress on the physical brain the memory of
astral experiences. In addition to these links, there must be the active
functioning of the pituitary body, [260] which focusses the astral
vibrations much as a burning glass focusses the rays of the sun. A number of
the astral vibrations are drawn together and made to fall on a particular
point, and vibrations being thus set up in dense physical matter, the
further propagation of these is easy. All this is necessary for
“remembering”.
4. THE PATHS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
The question arises: Does consciousness always travel
along the same path to reach its physical vehicle? Transits, we know, are
sometimes made directly through the atomic sub-planes from plane to plane,
and sometimes by passing through each sub-plane from the seventh to the
first before reaching the atomic sub-plane next below. Which of these
paths does consciousness follow In its normal working, in the ordinary
process of thinking, the wave comes steadily down through each successive
sub-plane, from the mental through the seven astral sub-planes to the
physical etheric, and so to the dense nervous matter. This wave sets up
electrical [261] currents in the etheric matter, and these affect the
protoplasm of the grey cells. But when the peculiar flashes of
consciousness occur, as in flashes of genius, or as in sudden illuminative
ideas which flash into the mind - such a flash as comes to the scientific
man when out of a great mass of facts there suddenly springs forth the
unifying underlying law - then the consciousness pours downward through the
atomic sub-planes only, and thus reaches the brain. This is the illuminative
idea which justifies itself by its mere appearance, like the sunlight, and
does not gain in compelling power by any process of reasoning. Thus
reasoning comes to the brain by the successive sub-planes; authoritative
illumination by the atomic sub-planes only. [262]
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATURE OF MEMORY.
1. THE GREAT SELF AND THE LITTLE SELVES.
WHAT is memory? and how does it work? by what means do we
recover the past, whether near or remote? For, after all, whether the past
be near or remote, belonging to this or to any anterior life, the means
which govern its recovery must be similar, and we require a theory which
will include all cases of memory, and at the same time will enable us to
understand each particular case.
The first step towards obtaining a definite and
intelligible theory is a comprehension of our own composition, of the Self
with its sheaths, and their interrelation; and we may here briefly restate
the main facts in the foregoing chapters [263] which directly bear on
the problem of Memory. We must bear constantly in mind the facts that our
consciousness is a unit, and that this unit of consciousness works through
various sheaths, which impose upon it a false appearance of multiplicity.
The innermost, or most tenuous, of these sheaths is inseparable from the
unit of consciousness; in fact, it is this sheath which makes it a unit.
This unit is the Monad, dwelling on the anupadaka plane; but for all
practical purposes we may take it as the familiar Inner Man, the Tri-Atom,
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, thought of as apart from the atmic, buddhic, and manasic
sheaths. This unit of consciousness manifests through, abides in, sheaths
belonging to the five planes of its activity, and we call it the Self
working in its sheaths.
We must think, then, of a conscious Self dwelling in
vehicles that vibrate. The vibrations of these vehicles correspond, on the
side of matter, with the changes in consciousness on the side of the Self.
We cannot accurately speak of vibrations of consciousness, because [264]
vibrations can only belong to the material side of things, the form
side, and only loosely can we speak of a vibrating consciousness. We have
changes in consciousness corresponding with vibrations in sheaths.
The question of the vehicles, or bodies, in which
consciousness, the Self, is working, is all-important as regards Memory. The
whole process of recovering more or less remote events is a question of
picturing them in the particular sheath - of shaping part of the matter of
the sheath into their likeness - in which consciousness is working at the
time. In the Self, as a fragment of the Universal Self - which for our
purpose we can take to be the LOGOS, although in verity the LOGOS is but a
portion of the Universal Self - is present everything; for in the Universal
Self is present all which has taken place, is taking place, and will take
place in the universe; all this, and an illimitable more, is present in the
Universal Consciousness. Let us think only of a universe and its LOGOS. We
speak of Him as omnipresent and omniscient. Now, fundamentally, that
[265] omnipresence and omniscience are in the individualised Self, as
being one with the LOGOS, but - we must put in here a but - with a
difference; the difference consisting in this, that while in the separated
Self as Self, apart from all vehicles, that omnipresence and omniscience
reside by virtue of his unity with the One Self, the vehicles in which he
dwells have not yet learned to vibrate in answer to his changes of
consciousness, as he turns his attention to one or another part of his
contents. Hence we say that all exists in him potentially, and not as in the
LOGOS actually: all the changes which go on in the consciousness of the
LOGOS are reproducible in this separated Self, which is an indivisible part
of His life, but the vehicles are not yet ready as media of manifestation.
Because of the separation of form, because of this closing in of the
separate, or individualised, Self, these possibilities which are within it
as part of the Universal Self are latent, not manifest, are possibilities,
not actualities. As in every atom which goes to the making up of a vehicle,
there are illimitable possibilities of vibration, so in every [266]
separated Self there are illimitable possibilities of changes of
consciousness.
We do not find in the atom, at the beginning of a solar
system, an illimitable variety of vibrations; but we learn that it possesses
a capacity to acquire an illimitable variety of vibrations; it acquires
these in the course of its evolution, as it responds continually to
vibrations playing upon its surface; at the end of a solar system, an
immense number of the atoms in it have reached the stage of evolution in
which they can vibrate in answer to any vibration touching them that arises
within the system; then, for that system, these atoms are said to be
perfected. The same thing is true for the separated, or individualised,
Selves. All the changes taking place in the consciousness of the LOGOS which
are represented in that universe, and take shape as forms in that universe,
all these are also within the perfected consciousnesses in that universe,
and any of these changes can be reproduced in any one of them. Here is
Memory: the reappearance, the reincarnation in matter, of anything that has
been within that [267] universe, and therefore ever is, in the
consciousness of its LOGOS, and in the consciousnesses which are parts of
His consciousness. Although we think of the Self as separate as regards all
other Selves, we must ever remember it is inseparate as regards the ONE SELF
the LOGOS. His life is not shut out from any part of His universe, and in
Him we live and move and have our being, open ever to Him, filled with His
life.
As the self puts on vehicle after vehicle of matter, its
powers of gaining knowledge become, with each additional vehicle, more
circumscribed but also more definite. Arrived on the physical plane,
consciousness is narrowed down to the experiences which can be received
through the physical body, and chiefly through those openings which we call
the sense-organs; these are avenues through which knowledge can reach the
imprisoned Self, though we often speak of them as shutting out knowledge
when we think of the capacities of the subtler vehicles. The physical body
renders perception definitive and clear much as a screen [268] with a
minute hole in it allows a picture of the outside world to appear on a wall
that would otherwise show a blank surface; rays of light are truly shut off
from the wall, but, by that very shutting off, those allowed to enter form a
clearly defined picture.
2. CHANGES IN THE VEHICLES AND IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
Let us now see what happens as regards the physical
vehicle in the reception of an impression and in the subsequent recall of
that impression, i.e., in the memory of it.
A vibration from outside strikes on an organ of sense,
and is transmitted to the appropriate centre in the brain. A group of cells
in the brain vibrates, and that vibration leaves the cells in a state
somewhat different from the one in which they were previous to its
reception, The trace of that response is a possibility for the group of
cells; it has once vibrated in a particular way, and it retains for the rest
of its existence as a group of cells the [269] possibility of again
vibrating in that same way without again receiving a stimulus from the
outside world. Each repetition of an identical vibration strengthens this
possibility, each leaving its own trace, but many such repetitions will be
required to establish a self-initiated repetition; the cells come nearer to
this possibility of a self-initiated vibration by each repetition compelled
from outside. But this vibration has not stopped with the physical cells;
it has been transmitted inwards to the corresponding cell, or group of
cells, in the subtler vehicles, and has ultimately produced a change in
consciousness. This change, in its turn, re-acts on the cells, and a
repetition of the vibrations is initiated from within by the change in
consciousness, and this repetition is a memory of the object which started
the series of vibrations. The response of the cells to the vibration from
outside, a response compelled by the laws of the physical universe, gives to
the cells the power of responding to a similar impulse, though feebler,
coming from within. A little power is exhausted in each moving [270]
of matter in a new vehicle, and hence a gradual diminution of the energy in
the vibration. Less and less is exhausted as the cells repeat similar
vibrations in response to new impacts from without, the cells answering more
readily with each repetition.
Therein lies the value of the “without”; it wakes up in
the matter, more easily than by any other way, the possibility of response,
being more closely akin to the vehicles than the “within”.
The change caused in consciousness, also, leaves the
consciousness more ready to repeat that change than it was first to yield
it, and each such change brings the consciousness nearer to the power to
initiate a similar change. Looking back into the dawnings of consciousness,
we see that the imprisoned Selves go through innumerable experiences before
a Self-initiated change in consciousness occurs; but bearing this in mind,
as a fact, we can leave these early stages, and study the workings of
consciousness at a more advanced point. We must also remember that every
impact, reaching the innermost [271] sheath, and giving rise to a
change in consciousness, is followed by a reaction, the change in
consciousness causing a new series of vibrations from within outwards;
there is the going inwards to the Self, followed by the rippling outwards
from the Self, the first due to the object, and giving rise to what we call
a perception, and the second due to the reaction of the Self, causing what
we call a memory.
A number of sense-impressions, coming through sight,
hearing, touch, taste, and smell run up from the physical vehicle through
the astral to the mental. There they are coordinated into a complex unity,
as a musical chord is composed of many notes. This is the special work of
the mental body: it receives many streams and synthesises them into one; it
builds many impressions into a perception, a thought, a complex unity.
3. MEMORIES.
Let us try to catch this complex thing, after it has gone
inwards and has caused a change in consciousness, an idea; the [272]
change it has caused gives rise to new vibrations in the vehicles,
reproducing those it had caused on its inward way, and in each vehicle it
reappears in a fainter form. It is not strong, vigorous, and vivid, as when
its component parts flashed from the physical to the astral, and from the
astral to the mental; it reappears in the mental in a fainter form, the copy
of that which the mental sent inwards, but the vibrations feebler; as the
Self receives from it a reaction - for the impact of a vibration on touching
each vehicle must cause a reaction - that reaction is far feebler
than the original action, and will therefore seem less “real” than that
action; it makes a lesser change in consciousness, and that lessening
represents inevitably a less “reality”.
So long as the consciousness is too little responsive to
be aware of any impacts that do not come through with the impulsive vigour
of the physical, it is literally more in touch with the physical than with
any other sheath, and there will be no memories of ideas, but only memories
of perceptions, i.e., of pictures of [273] outside objects,
caused by vibrations of the nervous matter of the brain, reproducing
themselves in the related astral and mental matter. These are literally
pictures in the mental matter, as are the pictures on the retina of the eye.
And the consciousness perceives these pictures, “sees” them, as we may truly
say, since the seeing of the eye is only a limited expression of its
perceptive power. As the consciousness draws a little away from the
physical, turning attention more to the modifications in its inner sheaths,
it sees these pictures reproduced in the brain from the astral sheath by its
own reaction passing outwards, and there is the memory of sensations, The
picture arises in the brain by the reaction of the change in consciousness,
and is recognised there. This recognition implies that the consciousness
has withdrawn largely from the physical to the astral vehicle, and is
working therein. The human consciousness is thus working at the present
time, and is, therefore, full of memories, these memories being
reproductions in the physical brain of past pictures, caused [274] by
reactions from consciousness. In a lowly evolved human type, these pictures
are pictures of past events in which the physical body was concerned,
memories of hunger and thirst and of their gratification, of sexual
pleasures, and so on, things in which the physical body took an active part.
In a higher type, in which the consciousness is working more in the mental
vehicle, the pictures in the astral body will draw more of its attention;
these pictures are shaped in the astral body by the vibrations coming
outwards from the mental, and are perceived as pictures by the consciousness
as it withdraws itself more into the mental body as its immediate vehicle.
As this process goes on, and the more awakened consciousness responds to
vibrations initiated from outside on the astral plane by astral objects,
these objects grow “real”, and become distinguishable from the memories, the
pictures in the astral body caused by the reactions from consciousness.
Let us note, in passing, that with the memory of an
object goes hand in hand a picture of the renewal of the keener [275]
experience of the object by physical contact, and this we call anticipation;
and the more complete the memory of an event the more complete is this
anticipation. So that the memory will sometimes even cause in the physical
body the reactions which normally accompany the contact with the external
object, and we may savour in anticipation pleasures which are not within
present reach of the body. Thus the anticipation of savoury food will cause
“the mouth to water”. This fact will again appear, when we reach the
completion of our theory of Memory.
4. WHAT IS MEMORY?
Now, having noted the changes in the vehicles which arise
from impacts from the external world, the response to these as changes of
consciousness, the feebler vibrations produced in the vehicles by the
reaction of consciousness, and the recognition of these again by
consciousness as memories, let us come to the crux of, the question: What
is Memory? The breaking up of the bodies between death [276] and
reincarnation puts an end to their automatism, to their power of responding
to vibrations similar to those already experienced; the responsive groups
are disintegrated, and all that remains as a seed for future responses is
stored within the permanent atoms; how feeble this is, as compared with the
new automatisms imposed on the mass of the bodies by new experiences of the
external, may be judged by the absence of any memory of past lives initiated
in the vehicles themselves. In fact, all the permanent atoms can do is to
answer more readily to vibrations of a kind similar to those previously
experienced than to those that come to them for the first time. The memory
of the cells, or of groups of cells, perishes at death, and cannot be said
to be recoverable, as such. Where then is Memory preserved?
The brief answer is: Memory is not a faculty, and is not
preserved it does not inhere in consciousness as a capacity, nor is any
memory of events stored up in the individual consciousness Every event is a
present fact in the universe-consciousness, [278] in the
consciousness of the LOGOS; everything that occurs in His universe, past,
present, and future, is ever there in His all-embracing consciousness, in
His “eternal NOW”. From the beginning of the universe to its ending, from
its dawn to its sunset, all is there, ever-present, existent. In that ocean
of ideas, all is; we, wandering in the ocean, touch fragments of its
contents, and our response to the contact is our knowledge; having known, we
can more readily again contact, and this repetition - when falling short of
the contact of the outside sheath of the moment with the fragments occupying
its own plane - is Memory. All “memories” are recoverable, because all
possibilities of image-producing vibrations are within the consciousness of
the LOGOS, and we can share in that consciousness the more easily as we
have previously shared more often similar vibrations; hence, the vibrations
which have formed parts of our experience are more readily repeated by us
than those we have never known, and here comes in the value of the [278]
permanent atoms; they thrill out again, on being stimulated, the
vibrations previously performed, and out of all the possibilities of
vibrations of the atoms and molecules of our bodies those sound out which
answer to the note struck by the permanent atoms. The fact that we have been
affected vibrationally and by changes of consciousness during the present
life makes it easier for us to take out of the universal consciousness that
of which we have already had experience in our own. Whether it be a memory
in the present life, or one in a life long past, the method of recovery is
the same. There is no memory save the ever-present consciousness of the
LOGOS, in whom we literally live and move and have our being; and our memory
is merely putting ourselves into touch with such parts of His
consciousness as we have previously shared.
Hence, according to Pythagoras, all learning is
remembrance, for it is the drawing from the consciousness of the LOGOS into
that of the separated Self that which in our essential unity with [279]
Him is eternally ours. On the plane where the unity overpowers the
separateness, we share His consciousness of our universe; on the lower
planes, where the separateness veils the unity, we are shut out therefrom by
our unevolved vehicles. It is the lack of responsiveness in these which
hinders us, for we can only know the planes through them. Therefore we
cannot directly improve our memory; we can only improve our general
receptivity and power to reproduce, by rendering our bodies more sensitive,
while being careful not to go beyond their limit of elasticity. Also we can
“pay attention”; i.e., we can turn the awareness of
consciousness, we can concentrate consciousness, on that special part of the
consciousness of the LOGOS to which we desire to attune ourselves. We need
not thus distress ourselves with calculations as to “how many angels can
stand on the point of a needle”, how we can preserve in a limited space the
illimitable number of vibrations experienced in many lives; for the whole of
the form-producing vibrations in the universe [280] are ever-present,
and are available to be drawn upon by any individual unit, and can be
reached as, by evolution, such a one experiences ever more and more.
5. REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING.
Let us apply this to an event in our past life: Some of
the circumstances “remain in our memory”, others are “forgotten”. Really,
the event exists with all its surrounding circumstances, “remembered” and
“forgotten” alike, in but one state, the memory of the LOGOS, the Universal
Memory. Anyone who is able to place himself in touch with that memory can
recover the whole circumstance as much as we can; the events through
which we have passed are not ours, but form part of the contents of His
consciousness; and our sense of property in them is only due to the fact
that we have previously vibrated to them, and therefore vibrate again to
them more readily than if we contacted them for the first time.
We may, however, contact them with different sheaths at
different times, living [281] as we do under time and space
conditions which vary with each sheath. The part of the consciousness of the
LOGOS that we move through in our physical bodies is far more restricted
than that we move through in our astral and mental bodies, and the contacts
through a well-organised body are far more vivid than those through a
less-organised one. Moreover, it must be remembered that the restriction of
area is due to our vehicles only; faced by the complete event, physical,
astral, mental, spiritual, our consciousness of it is limited within the
range of the vehicles able to respond to it. We feel ourselves to be
among the circumstances which surround the grossest vehicle we are acting
in, and which thus touch it from “outside”; whereas we “remember” the
circumstances which we contact with the finer vehicles, these transmitting
the vibrations to the grosser vehicle, which is thus touched from “within”.
The test of objectivity that we apply to circumstances
“present” or “remembered” is that of the “common sense”. If others around us
see as we see, hear as we hear, [282] we regard the circumstances as
objective; if they do not, if they are unconscious of that of which we are
conscious, we regard the circumstances as subjective. But this test of
objectivity is only valid for those who are active in the same sheaths; if
one person is working in the physical body and another in the physical and
the astral, the things objective to the man in the astral body cannot affect
the man in the physical body, and he will declare them to be subjective
hallucinations. The “common sense” can only work in similar bodies; it will
give similar results when all are in physical bodies, all in astral, or all
in mental. For the “common sense” is merely the thought-forms of the LOGOS
on each plane, conditioning each embodied consciousness, and enabling it to
respond by certain changes to certain vibrations in its vehicles. It is by
no means confined to the physical plane, but the average humanity at the
present stage of evolution has not sufficiently unfolded the indwelling
consciousness for them to exercise any “common sense” on the astral and
mental planes. “Common sense” is an eloquent [283] testimony to the
oneness of our indwelling lives; we see all things around us on the physical
plane in the same way, because our apparently separate consciousnesses are
all really part of the One Consciousness ensouling all forms. We all respond
in the same general way, according to the stage of our evolution, because we
share the same consciousness; and we are affected similarly by the same
things because the action and reaction between them and ourselves is the
interplay of the One Life in varied forms.
Recovery of anything by memory, then, is due to the
ever-existence of everything in the consciousness of the LOGOS, and He has
imposed upon us the limitations of time and space in order that we may, by
practice, be able to respond swiftly by changes of consciousness to the
vibrations caused in our vehicles by vibrations coming from other vehicles
similarly ensouled by consciousness; thus only can we gradually learn to
distinguish precisely and clearly; contacting things successively - that is,
being in time - and contacting them in relative directions in regard to
[284] ourselves and to each other - that is, being in space - we are
gradually unfolded to the state in which we can recognise all
simultaneously and each everywhere - that is, out of time and space.
As we pass through countless happenings in life, we find
that we do not keep in touch with all through which we have passed; there is
a very limited power of response in our physical vehicle, and hence numerous
experiences drop out of its purview. In trance, we can recover these, and
they are said to emerge from the sub-conscious. Truly they remain ever
unchanging in the Universal Consciousness, and as we pass by them we become
aware of them, because the very limited light of our consciousness, shrouded
in the physical vehicle, falls upon them, and they disappear as we pass on;
but as the area covered by that same light shining through the astral
vehicle is larger, they again appear when we are in trance - that is, in the
astral vehicle, free from the physical; they have not come and gone and come
back again, but the light of our consciousness in the physical [285]
vehicle had passed on, and so we saw them not, and the more extended light
in the astral vehicle enables us to see them again. As Bhagavan Das has well
said:
“If a spectator wandered unrestingly through the halls of
a vast museum, a great art-gallery, at the dead of night, with a single
small lamp in one hand, each of the natural objects, the pictured scenes,
the statues, the portraits, would be illumined by that lamp, in succession,
for a single moment, while all the rest were in darkness, and after that
single moment, would itself fall into darkness again. Let there now be not
one but countless such spectators, as many in endless number as the objects
of sight within the place, each spectator meandering in and out incessantly
through the great crowd of all the others, each lamp bringing momentarily
into light one object and for only that spectator who holds that lamp. This
immense and unmoving building is the rock-bound ideation of the changeless
Absolute. Each lamp-carrying spectator out of the countless crowd is one
line of [286] consciousness out of the pseudo-infinite lines of such,
that make up the totality of the one universal consciousness. Each coming
into light of each object is its potency, is an experience of the Jiva; each
falling into darkness is its lapse into the latent. From the standpoint of
the objects themselves, or of the universal consciousness, there is no
latency, nor potency. From that of the lines of consciousness, there is.”
As vehicle after vehicle comes into fuller working, the
area of light extends, and the consciousness can turn its attention to any
one part of the area and observe closely the objects therein included. Thus,
when the consciousness can function freely on the astral plane, and is aware
of its surroundings there, it can see much that on the physical plane is
“past” – or “future”, if they be things to which in the “past” it has
learned to respond. Things outside the area of light coming through the
vehicle of the astral body will be within the area of that which streams
from the subtler mental vehicle. When the causal [287] body is the
vehicle, the “memory of past lives” is recoverable, the causal body
vibrating more readily to events to which it has before vibrated, and the
light shining through it embracing a far larger area and illuminating scenes
long “past” - those scenes being really no more past than the scenes of the
present, but occupying a different spot in time and space. The lower
vehicles, which have not previously vibrated to these events, cannot readily
directly contact them and answer to them; that belongs to the causal body,
the relatively permanent vehicle. But when this body answers to them, the
vibrations from it readily run downwards, and may be reproduced in the
mental, astral, and physical bodies.
6. ATTENTION.
The phrase is used above, as to consciousness, that “it
can turn its attention to any one part of the area, and observe closely the
objects therein included”. This “turning of the attention” corresponds very
closely in consciousness to what we should call focussing the eye in the
physical [288] body. If we watch the action taking place in the
muscles of the eye when we look first at a near and then at a distant
object, or vice versa, we shall be conscious of a slight movement,
and this constriction or relaxation causes a slight compression or the
reverse in the lenses of the eye. It is an automatic action now, quite
instinctive, but it has only become so by practice; a baby does not focus
his eye, nor judge distance. He grasps as readily at a candle on the other
side of the room as at one within his reach, and only slowly learns to know
what is beyond his reach. The effort to see clearly leads to the focussing
of the eye, and presently it becomes automatic. The objects for which the
eye is focussed are within the field of clear vision, and the rest are
vaguely seen. So, also, the consciousness is clearly aware of that to which
its attention is turned; other things remain vague, “out of focus”.
A man gradually learns to thus turn his attention to
things long past, as we measure time. The causal body is put into touch with
them, and the vibrations are then transmitted to the lower bodies. The
[289] presence of a more advanced student will help a less advanced,
because when the astral body of the former has been made to vibrate
responsively to long past events, thus creating an astral picture of them,
the astral body of the younger student can more readily reproduce these
vibrations and thus also “see”. But even when a man has learned to put
himself into touch with his past, and through his own with that of others
connected with it, he will find it more difficult to turn his attention
effectively to scenes with which he has had no connexion; and when that is
mastered, he will still find it difficult to put himself into touch with
scenes outside the experiences of his recent past; for instance, if he
wishes to visit the moon, and by his accustomed methods launches himself in
that direction, he will find himself bombarded by a hail of unaccustomed
vibrations to which he cannot instinctively respond, and will need to fall
back on his inherent divine power to answer to anything which can affect
his vehicles. If he seeks to go yet further, to another planetary system, he
will find a barrier he cannot overleap, [290] the Ring Pass-not of
his own Planetary Logos.
6. THE ONE CONSCIOUSNESS.
We thus begin to understand what is meant by the
statements that people at a certain grade of evolution can reach this or
that part of the kosmos; they can put themselves into touch with the
consciousness of the LOGOS outside the limitations imposed by their
material vehicles on the less evolved. These vehicles, being composed of
matter modified by the action of the Planetary Logos of the Chain to which
they belong, cannot respond to the vibrations of matter differently
modified; and the student must be able to use his atmic body before he can
contact the Universal Memory beyond the limits of his own Chain.
Such is the theory of Memory which I present for the
consideration of theosophical students. It applies equally to the
small memories and forgettings of everyday life as to the vast reaches
alluded to in the above paragraph. For there is nothing small or great to
the LOGOS, and [291] when we are performing the smallest act of
memory, we are as much putting ourselves into touch with the omnipresence
and omniscience of the LOGOS, as when we are recalling a far-off past. There
is no “far-off”, and no “near”. All are equally present at all times and in
all spaces; the difficulty is with our vehicles, and not with that
all-embracing changeless Life. All becomes more and more intelligible and
more peace-giving as we think of that Consciousness, in which is no “before”
and no “after”, no “past” and no “future”. We begin to feel that these
things are but the illusions, the limitations, imposed upon us by our own
sheaths, necessary until our powers are evolved and at our service. We live
unconsciously in this mighty Consciousness in which everything is eternally
present, and we dimly feel that if we could live consciously in that Eternal
there were peace. I know of nothing that can more give to the events of a
life their true proportion than this idea of a Consciousness in which
everything is present from the beginning, in which indeed there is no
beginning and no ending. We learn that [292] there is nothing
terrible and nothing which is more that relatively sorrowful; and in that
lesson is the beginning of a true peace, which in due course shall brighten
into joy. [293]
Part II.
WILL, DESIRE, AND EMOTION.
CONTENTS. |
|
PAGE |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CHAPTER I. |
THE WILL TO LIVE |
299 |
CHAPTER II. |
DESIRE |
|
|
1. The Nature of Desire |
305 |
|
2. The Awakening of
Desire |
310 |
|
3. The Relation of Desire
to Thought |
314 |
|
4. Desire, Thought,
Action |
318 |
|
5. The Binding Nature of
Desire |
319 |
|
6. The Breaking of the
Bonds |
322 |
CHAPTER III. |
DESIRE (Continued) |
|
|
1. The Vehicle of Desire |
327 |
|
2. The Conflict of Desire
and Thought |
333 |
|
3. The Value of an Ideal |
338 |
|
4. The Purification of
Desire |
342 |
CHAPTER IV. |
EMOTION |
|
|
1. The Birth of Emotion |
348 |
|
2. The Play of Emotion in
the Family |
354 |
|
3. The Birth of Virtues |
361 |
|
4. Right and Wrong |
363 |
|
5. Virtue and Bliss |
365 |
|
6. The Transmutation of
the Emotions into Virtues and Vices |
367 |
|
7. Application of the
Theory to Conduct |
371 |
|
8. The Uses of Emotion |
273 |
CHAPTER V. |
EMOTION (Continued) |
|
|
1. The Training of
Emotion |
381 |
|
2. The Distorting Force
of Emotion |
387 |
|
3. Methods of Ruling the
Emotions |
390 |
|
4. The Using of Emotion |
399 |
|
5. The Value of Emotion
in Evolution |
405 |
CHAPTER VI. |
THE WILL |
|
|
1. The Will winning its
Freedom |
409 |
|
2. Why so much Struggle |
423 |
|
3. The Power of the Will |
429 |
|
4. White and Black Magic |
439 |
|
5. Entering into Peace |
441 |
WILL, DESIRE, AND EMOTION.
CHAPTER I.
THE WILL TO LIVE.
IN the brief study of Origins which forms [points] 1.,
2., of the Introduction to this book, we saw that the Monad, coming forth
from the First Logos, showed in his own nature the tri-unity of his Source,
the aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity.
It is to the study of Will - showing itself as Will on
the higher plane and as Desire on the lower - that we are now to turn our
attention; and the study of Desire leads us to the study of Emotion,
indissolubly attached to it. We have already seen that we are here because
we have willed to live in the lower worlds, that the Will determines our
stay here. [299] But the nature and power and work of the Will are
for the most part but little realised, for in the earlier stages of
evolution it is not manifest on the lower planes save as Desire, and it
must be studied as Desire before it can be understood as Will.
It is the Power aspect of consciousness, ever veiled
within the Self, hiding as it were behind Wisdom and Activity, but
prompting both to manifestation. So hidden is its nature that many regard
it as one with Activity, and refuse to it the dignity of an aspect of
consciousness. Yet Activity is the action of the Self on the Not-Self, that
which gives to the Not-Self its temporary Reality, that which creates; but
Will hides ever within, impelling to Activity, attracting, repelling, the
core of the Heart of Being.
Will is the Power which stands behind Cognition, and
stimulates Activity; Thought is the creative activity, but Will the motive
power. Our bodies are as they are, because the Self has for countless ages
set his Will that matter should be shaped into forms whereby he may [300]
cognise and energise on all outside himself. It is written in an ancient
Scripture: “Of a truth this body is mortal, O Maghavan, it is subject to
death. Yet is it a resting-place of the immortal and bodiless Atma. The eyes
are intended as organs of observation for the Being who dwelleth within the
eyes. He who willeth, ‘I shall smell’, is the Atma, wishing to experience
fragrance. He who willeth, ‘I shall speak’, is the Atma wishing to utter
words. He who willeth, ‘I shall hear’, is the Atma wishing to listen to
sounds. He who willeth, ‘I shall think’, is the Atma. The mind is the
celestial eye, observing all desirable objects. By means of the mental
celestial eye, Atma enjoyeth all”.
This is the secret, the motive power, of evolution. True,
the great Will traces the high road of evolution. True, spiritual
Intelligences of many grades guide the evolving entities along that high
road. But too little attention has been paid to the countless experiments,
failures, successes, the little bye-ways and [301] twists and curls,
due to the gropings of the separate Wills, each Will to Live trying to find
Self-expression. The contacts from the outer world arouse in each Atma, the
Will to know what touches. He knows but little in the jellyfish, but the
Will to know shapes, in form after form, an ever-improving eye, that hinders
less his power of perception. As we study evolution, we become more and more
conscious of Wills which shape matter, but shape it by groping experiments,
not by clear vision. The presence of these many Wills makes the constant
branching of the evolutionary tree. There is a real truth in Professor
Clifford’s playful story to the children about the great Saurians of an
early age: “Some chose to fly and became birds; others chose to crawl, and
became reptiles”. Often we see an attempt foiled, and then the attempt is
made in another direction. Often we see the most clumsy contrivances side
by side with the most exquisite adaptations. The latter are the results of
Intelligences knowing their aims and constantly chiselling the matter into
[302] appropriate forms; the others are the outcome of the strivings
from within, still blind and groping, but steadfastly set to
Self-expression. If there were only outside designers, seeing the end from
the beginning, Nature would present us with insoluble puzzles in her
building, so many are the inadequate attempts, the ineffective designs. But
when we realise the presence of the Will to Live in each form, seeking
Self-expression, shaping his vehicles for his own purposes, then we can see
alike the creative plan which underlies all-the plan of the LOGOS; the
admirable adaptations which work out His plan - the labour of the building
Intelligences; and the inapt contrivances and clumsy expedients - due to
the efforts of the Selves that will, but have not yet the knowledge or the
power to perform perfectly.
It is this groping, striving, struggling divine Self,
which, as evolution goes on, becomes in ever-increasing measure the true
Ruler, the inner Ruler, the Immortal. Anyone who grasps that he is himself
that Immortal Ruler, seated within his Self-created vehicles of expression,
gains a [303] sense of dignity and power which grows ever stronger,
and more compelling on the lower nature. The knowledge of the truth make us
inly free. The inner Ruler may still be hampered by the very forms he has
shaped for self-expression, but knowing himself as the Ruler, he can work
steadfastly to bring his realm into complete subjection. He knows that he
has come into the world for a certain purpose, to make himself fit to be a
co-worker with the Supreme Will, and he can do and suffer all which is
necessary to that end. He knows himself divine, and that his
Self-realisation is only a question of time. Inwardly the divinity is felt,
though outwardly it is not yet expressed, and there remains to become in
manifestation what he is in essence. He is king de jure, not
yet de facto.
As a Prince, born to a crown, patiently submits to the
discipline which is fitting him to wear it, so the sovereign Will in us is
evolving to the age when royal powers will pass into its grasp, and may
patiently submit to the necessary discipline of life. [304]
CHAPTER II.
DESIRE.
1. THE NATURE OF DESIRE.
WHEN the Monad sends forth his rays into the matter of
the third, fourth, and fifth planes, and appropriates to himself an atom of
each of these planes,
he creates what is often called his “reflexion in matter”, the human
“Spirit”, and the Will-aspect of the Monad is mirrored in the human Atma,
whose home is on the third or atmic plane. That first hypostasis is indeed
lessened in powers by the veils of matter thus endued, but it is in no way
distorted; as a well-made mirror produces a perfect image of an object, so
is the human Spirit, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, a perfect image of the Monad, is,
indeed, [305] the Monad himself veiled in denser matter. But as a
concave or convex mirror yields a distorted image of an object placed before
it, so do the further reflections of the Spirit in, or involutions into, yet
denser matter show but distorted images thereof.
Thus, when the Will, in its downward progress, veiling
itself farther on each plane, reaches the world immediately above the
physical, the astral world, it appears therein as Desire. Desire shows the
energy, the concentration, the impelling characteristics of Will, but matter
has wrenched away its control its direction, from the Spirit, and has
usurped dominion over it. Desire is Will discrowned, the captive, the slave
of matter. It is no longer Self-determined, but is determined by the
attractions around it.
This is the distinction between Will and Desire. The
innermost nature of both is the same, for they are verily but one
determination, the Self-determination of the Atma, the one motor-power of
man, that which impels to Activity, to action on the external world, on the
Not-[306]Self. When the Self determines the activity, uninfluenced
by attractions or repulsions towards surrounding objects, then Will is
manifested. When outer attractions and repulsions determine the activity,
and the man is drawn hither and thither by these, deaf to the voice of the
Self, unconscious of the Inner Ruler, then Desire is seen.
Desire is Will clothed in astral matter, in the matter
which by the second life-wave was formed into combinations, the reaction
between which and consciousness would cause sensations in the latter.
Clothed in this matter, the vibrations of which are accompanied with
sensations in consciousness, Will is modified into Desire. Its essential
nature of giving motor-impulses, surrounded by matter which arouses
sensations, answers by impelling energy, and this energy, aroused through
and acting through astral matter, is Desire.
As in the higher nature Will is the impelling power, so
in the lower nature Desire is the impelling power. When it is feeble the
whole nature is feeble in its [307] reaction on the world. The
effective force of a nature is measured by its Will-power or its
Desire-power, according to the stage of evolution. There is a truth
underlying the popular phrase, “The greater the sinner the greater the
saint”. The mediocre person can be neither greatly good nor greatly bad;
there is not enough of him for more than petty virtues or petty vices. The
strength of the Desire-nature in a man is the measure of his capacity for
progress, the measure of the motor-energy whereby that man can press onwards
along the way. The strength in a man that impels to reaction on his
environment is the measure of his power to modify, to change, to conquer it.
In the struggle, with the Desire-nature which marks the higher evolution,
the motor-energy is not to be destroyed but transferred; lower Desires are
to be transmuted into higher, energy is to be refined while losing nought of
its power; and finally the Desire-nature is to vanish into Will, all the
energies being gathered up and merged into the Will-aspect of the Spirit,
the Power of the Self. [308]
No aspirant, therefore, should be discouraged by the
storming and raging of desires in him, any more than a horse-breaker is
displeased with the rearings and plungings of the unbroken colt. The
wildness of the young untrained creature, and his rebellion against all
efforts to control and restrain, are the promise of his future usefulness
when disciplined aid trained. And even thus are the strainings of Desire
against the curb imposed by the Intelligence, the promise of the future
strength of Will, of the Power-aspect of the Self.
Rather does difficulty arise where desires are feeble,
ere yet the Will has freed itself from the trammels of astral matter; for in
such case the Will to Live is expressing itself but feebly, and there is
little effective force available for evolution. There is some obstacle, some
barrier, in the vehicles, checking the forthgoing energy of the Monad, and
obstructing its free passage, and until that barrier is removed there is
little progress to be hoped for. In the storm the ship drives onward, though
there be peril of wreck, [309] but in the dead calm she remains
helpless and unmoving, answering neither to sail nor helm. And since, in
this voyage, no final wreck is possible, but only temporary damage, and the
storm works for progress rather than the calm, those who find themselves
storm-tossed may look forward with sure conviction to the day when the
storm-gusts of Desire will be changed into the steady wind of Will.
2. THE AWAKENING OF DESIRE.
To the astral world we refer all our sensations. The
centres by which we feel lie in the astral body, and the reactions of these
to contacts give rise to feelings of pleasure and pain in consciousness. The
ordinary physiologist traces sensation of pleasure and pain from the point
of contact to the brain-centre, recognising only nervous vibrations between
periphery and centre, and in the centre the reaction of consciousness as
sensation. We follow the vibrations further, finding only vibrations in the
brain-centre and in the ether permeating it, and seeing in the astral
[310] centre the point at which the reaction of consciousness takes
place. When a dislocation between the physical and astral bodies occurs,
whether by the action of chloroform, ether, laughing-gas, or other drugs,
the physical body, despite all its nervous apparatus, feels no more than if
bereft of nerves. The links between the physical body and the body of
sensation are thrown out of gear, and consciousness does not respond to any
stimulus applied.
The awakening of Desire takes place in this body of
sensation, and follows the first dim sensings of pleasure and pain. As
before pointed out
pleasure “is a sense of ‘moreness’, of increased, expanded life”, while pain
is a shutting in or lessening of life, and these belong to the whole
consciousness. “This primary state of consciousness does not manifest the
three well-known aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity, even in the most
germinal stage; ‘feeling’ precedes these, and belongs to consciousness as a
whole, though in later stages of evolution it shows itself so much [311]
in connexion with the Will-Desire aspect as to become almost identified
with it”. “As the states of pleasure and pain become more definitely
established in consciousness, they give rise to another; with the fading
away of pleasure there is a continuation of the attraction in
consciousness, and this becomes a dim groping after it” - a groping, be it
noted, not after any pleasure-giving object, but after a continuance of the
feeling of pleasure - “a vague following of the vanishing feeling, a
movement - too indefinite to be called an effort - to hold it, to retain it;
similarly with the fading away of pain there is a continuation of the
repulsion in consciousness, and this becomes an equally vague movement to
push it away. These stages give birth to Desire”.
This arising of Desire is a feeble reaching out of the
life in search of pleasure, a movement of the life, undirected, vague,
groping. Beyond this it cannot go, until Thought has developed to a certain
extent, and has recognised an outer world, a Not-Self, and has learned to
relate various objects in the Not-Self to the pleasure or [312] pain
arising in consciousness on contacting them.
But the results of these contacts, long before the
objects are recognised, have caused, as above indicated, a division in, a
forking of, Desire. We may take as one of the simplest illustrations the
craving for food in a lowly organism; as the physical body wastes, becomes
less, a sense of pain arises in the astral body, a want, a craving, vague
and indeterminate; the body, by its wasting, has become a less effective
vehicle of the life pouring down through the astral, and this check causes
pain. A current in the water that bathes the organism brings food up against
the body; it is absorbed, the waste is repaired, the life flows on
unobstructed; there is pleasure. At a little higher stage, when pain
arises, there is the desire to escape from it, the sense of repulsion
arises, the contrary to the sense of attraction, caused by pleasure. There
results from this that Desire is cloven in twain. From the Will to Live
arose the longing to experience, and in the lower vehicle this longing,
appearing as Desire, becomes on the one [313] hand a longing for
experiences that make the feeling of life more vivid, and on the other a
shrinking from all that weakens and depresses. This attraction and
repulsion are equally of the nature of Desire. Just as a magnet attracts or
repels certain metals, so does the embodied Self attract and repel. Both
attraction and repulsion are Desire, and these are the two great
motor-energies in life, into which all desires are ultimately resolvable.
The Self comes under the bondage of Desire, of Attraction-Repulsion, and is
attracted hither and thither, repelled from this or that, hurried about
among pleasure and pain-giving objects, as a helmless ship amid the
currents of air and sea.
3. THE RELATION OF DESIRE TO THOUGHT.
We have now to consider the relation that Desire bears to
Thought, and see how it first rules and then is ruled by the latter.
The Pure Reason is the reflexion of the Wisdom-aspect of
the Monad, and appears in the human Spirit as Buddhi. But it is not the
relation of Desire to the Pure Reason [314] with which eve are
concerned, for it cannot, in fact, be said to be directly related to Wisdom,
but to Love, the manifestation of Wisdom on the astral plane. We are to seek
rather its relation to the Activity-aspect of the Monad, showing itself on
the astral plane as sensation and on the mental as thought. Nor are we even
concerned with the Higher Mind, which is creative Activity, Manas, in its
purity; but with the distorted reflexion of this, the lower mind. It is this
lower mind which is immediately related to Desire, and is inextricably
intermingled with it in human evolution; so closely joined, indeed, are
they, that we often speak of Kama-Manas, Desire-Mind, as of a single thing,
so rare is it, in the lower consciousness, to find a single thought which
is uninfluenced by a desire. “Manas verily is declared to be twofold, pure
and impure; the impure is determined by desire, the pure is desire-free.”
This lower mind is “thought” on the mental plane; its
characteristic property is that it asserts and denies; it knows by
difference; it perceives and remembers. [315] On the astral plane, as
we have seen, the same aspect that on the mental plane is thought appears as
sensation, and is aroused by contact with the external world.
When a pleasure has been experienced, and has passed
away, Desire arises to experience it again, as we have seen. And this fact
implies memory, which is a function of the mind. Here, as ever, are
we reminded that consciousness is ever acting in its threefold nature,
though one or other aspect may predominate, for even the most germinal
desire cannot arise without memory being present. The sensation caused by an
external impact must have been many times aroused, before the mind will
establish a relation between the sensation of which it is conscious, and the
external object which has caused the sensation. At last the mind “perceives”
the object, i.e., relates it to one of its own changes,
recognises a modification in itself caused by the external object.
Repetitions of this perception will establish a definite link in memory
between the object and the [316] pleasurable or painful sensation,
and when Desire presses for the repetition of pleasure, the mind recalls the
object which supplied that pleasure. Thus the mingling of Thought with
Desire gives birth to a particular desire, the desire to find and
appropriate the pleasure-giving object.
This desire impels the mind to exert its inherent
activity. Discomfort being caused by the unsatisfied craving, effort is made
to escape the discomfort by supplying the object wanted. The mind plans,
schemes, drives the body into action, in order to satisfy the cravings of
Desire. And similarly, equally prompted by Desire, the mind plans, schemes,
drives the body into action in order to avoid the recurrence of pain from an
object recognised as pain-giving.
Such is the relation of Desire to Thought. It rouses,
stimulates, urges on, mental efforts. The mind is, in its early stages, the
slave of Desire, and the rapidity of its growth is in proportion to the
fierce urgings of Desire. We desire, and thus are forced to think. [317]
4. DESIRE, THOUGHT, ACTION.
The third stage of the contact of the Self with the
Not-Self is Action. The mind having perceived the object of desire, leads
to, guides and shapes the action. Action is often said to arise from Desire,
but Desire alone could only arouse movement, or chaotic action. The force
of Desire is propulsive, not directive. Thought it is that adds the element
of direction, and shapes the action purposively.
This is the ever-recurring cycle in consciousness -
Desire, Thought, Action. The propulsive power of Desire arouses Thought; the
directive power of Thought guides Action. This sequence is invariable, and
the clear understanding thereof is of the profoundest importance, for the
effective control of conduct depends on this understanding, and on its
application in practice. The shaping of karma can only be achieved when this
sequence is understood, for evitable and inevitable action can only thus be
discriminated.
It is by Thought that we can change Desire, and
thereby change Action. When [318] the mind sees that certain desires
have impelled to thoughts that have directed actions which were productive
of unhappiness, it can resist the future promptings of Desire in a similar
direction, and refuse to guide actions to a result already known as
disastrous. It can picture the painful results, and thus arouse the
repellent energy of Desire, and can image the blissful outcome of desires of
the opposite kind. The creative activity of Thought can be exerted in the
moulding of Desire, and its propulsive energy can be turned into a better
direction. In this way Thought can be used to master Desire, and it may
become the ruler instead of the slave. And as it thus asserts control over
its unruly companion, it begins the transmutation of Desire into Will,
changing the governance of the outgoing energy from the outer to the inner,
from the external objects that attract or repel to the Spirit, the inner
Ruler.
5. THE BINDING NATURE OF DESIRE.
Since the Will to Live is the cause of the forthgoing, of
the life seeking [319] embodiment and appropriating to itself that
which is necessary for its manifestation and persistence in form, Desire,
being Will on a lower plane, will show similar characteristics, seeking to
appropriate, to draw into itself, to make part of itself that whereby its
life in form may be maintained and strengthened. When we desire an object,
we seek to make it part of ourselves, part of the “I”, so that it may form
part of the embodiment of the “I”. Desire is the putting forth of the power
of attraction; it draws the desired object to itself. Whatever we desire, we
attach to ourselves. By the desire to possess it, a bond is established
between the object and the desirer. We tie to the Self this portion of the
Not-Self, and the bond exists until the object is possessed, or until the
Self has broken off the bond and repudiated the object. These are “the bonds
of the heart”,
and tie the Self to the wheel of births and deaths.
These bonds between the desiror and the objects of desire
are like ropes that draw the Self to the place where the [320]
objects of desire are found, and thus determine its birth into one or
another world. “On this runs the verse: He also who is attached ever obtains
by action that on which his mind has set its mark. Having obtained the
object of action he here performs, he comes again therefore from that world
to this world for the sake of action. Thus is it with the desiring mind.”
If a man desires the objects of another world more than the objects of this,
then into that world will he be born. There is a continuing tension in the
bond of Desire until the Self and the object are united.
The one great determining energy, the Will to Live, which
holds the planets in their path around the sun, which prevents the matter of
the globes from scattering, which holds our own bodies together, that is the
energy of Desire. That which rules all is in us as Desire, and it must draw
to us, or draw us to, everything into which it has fixed its hooks. The hook
of Desire fixes itself in an object, as a harpoon in the whale at which it
is flung [321] by the harpooner. When Desire has fixed its harpoon in
an object, the Self is attached to that object, has appropriated it in Will,
and presently must appropriate it in action. Hence a great Teacher has said:
“If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee … if thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee”.
The thing desired becomes part of the body of the Self, and, if it be evil,
it should be torn out, at whatever cost of anguish. Otherwise it will only
be worn away by the slow attrition of time and of weariness. “Only the
strong can kill it out. The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its
death.”
6. THE BREAKING OF THE BONDS.
For the breaking of the bonds of Desire, recourse must be
had to the mind. Therein lies the power which shall first purify and then
transmute Desire.
The mind records the results which follow the
appropriation of each object of [322] Desire, and marks whether
happiness or pain has resulted from the union of that object with the
embodied Self. And when, after many appropriations of an attractive object,
it has found the result to be pain, it registers that object as one which
should be avoided in the future. “The delights that are contact-born, they
are verily wombs of pain.”
Then arises strife. When that attractive object again
presents itself, Desire throws out its harpoon and seizes it, and begins to
draw it in. The mind, remembering the painful results of previous similar
captures, endeavours to check Desire, to cut, with the sword of knowledge,
the attaching bond. Fierce conflict rages within the man: he is dragged
forward by Desire, held back by Thought; many and many a time Desire will
triumph and the object will be appropriated; but the resulting pain is ever
repeated, and each success of Desire arrays against it another enemy in the
forces of the mind. Inevitably, however slowly, Thought proves stronger,
until, at last, victory [323] inclines to its side, and a day comes
when the desire is weaker than the mind, and the attractive object is
loosed, the attaching cord is cut. For that object, the bond is broken.
In this conflict, Thought seeks to utilise against Desire
the strength of Desire. It selects objects of Desire that give a relatively
lasting happiness, and seeks to utilise these against the desires that
swiftly result in pain. Thus it will set artistic against sensual pleasure;
it will use fame and political or social power against enjoyments of the
flesh; it will stimulate the desire to please the good, to strengthen
abstention from vicious delights; it will finally make the desire for
eternal peace conquer the desires for temporal joys. By the one great
attraction the lower attractions are slain, and cease to be any longer the
objects of desire: “Even taste (for them) turneth away from him after the
Supreme is see”.
The very energy of Desire can tear it away from that which brings pain, and
fix it on that which brings bliss. The same force that bound is made
[324] to serve as an instrument of freedom. Wrenching itself away from
objects, it will turn upwards and inwards, attaching the man to the Life
whence he came forth, and in union with which consists his highest bliss.
Herein lies the value of devotion as a liberator. Love,
turning to the Supreme, sees Him as eminently desirable, as an Object for
intense desire, and this burns up attachments to objects that keep the heart
in bondage.
Only by the Self as Thought can be mastered the Self as
Desire; the Self, realising itself as the life, overcomes the Self embodied
and thinking itself to be the form. The man must learn to separate himself
from the vehicles in which he desires, thinks, and acts, to know them as
part of the Not-Self, as material external to the life. Thus the energy that
went out to objects in the lower desires becomes the higher desire guided by
the mind, and is prepared to be transmuted into Will.
As the lower mind merges itself in the higher, and the
higher into that which is Wisdom, the aspect of pure Will emerges [325]
as the Power of the Spirit, Self-determined, Self-ruled, in perfect
harmony with the Supreme Will, and therefore free. Then only are all bonds
broken, and the Spirit is unconstrained by aught outside himself. Then, and
then only, can the Will be said to be free. [326]
CHAPTER III.
DESIRE (continued).
1. THE VEHICLE OF DESIRE.
WE shall have to return to the struggle in the
Desire-nature, in order to add some useful details to that which has been
already said; but it is first necessary to study the Vehicle of Desire, the
Desire-Body or Astral Body, as this study will enable us to understand the
precise method in which we may work to subdue and get rid of the lower
desires.
The Vehicle of Desire is made up of what is called astral
matter, the matter of the plane above the physical. This matter, like the
physical, exists in seven modifications, which relatively to each other are
like the solid, liquid, gaseous, etc., sub-states of matter on the physical
plane. As the physical body contains [327] within itself these
various sub-states of physical matter, so does the astral body contain
within itself the various sub-states of astral matter. Each of these
sub-states has in it coarser and finer aggregations, and the work of astral,
as of physical purification, consists in the substitution of the finer for
the coarser.
Moreover, the lower sub-states of astral matter serve
chiefly for the manifestation of the lower desires, while the higher
sub-states vibrate in answer to the desires which have changed, by the
intermixture of mind, into emotions. The lower desires, grasping after
objects of pleasure, find that the lower sub-states serve as medium for
their attractive force, and the coarser and baser the desires, the coarser
are the aggregations of matter that fitly express them. As the desire causes
the corresponding material in the astral body to vibrate, that matter
becomes strongly vitalised and attracts fresh similar matter from outside to
itself, and thus increases the amount of such matter in the constitution of
the astral body. When the desires are gradually refined into emotions,
[328] intellectual elements entering into them, and selfishness
diminishing, the amount of finer matter similarly increases in the astral
body, while the coarser matter, left un-vitalised, loses energy and
decreases in amount.
These facts, applied to practice, help us to weaken the
enemy which is enthroned within us, for we can deprive him of his
instruments. A traitor within the gates is more dangerous than a foe
outside, and the desire-body acts as such a traitor, so long as it is
composed of elements that answer to the temptations from without.
Desire, as it builds in the coarser materials, must be
checked by the mind, the mind refusing to picture the passing pleasure which
the possession of the object would entail, and picturing to itself the more
lasting sorrow it would cause. As we get rid of the coarser matter which
vibrates in answer to the baser attractions, those attractions lose all
power to disturb us.
This vehicle of desire, then, must be taken in hand;
according to its building will be the attractions that reach us from
[329] without. We can work upon the form, change the elements of which
the form is composed, and thus turn the enemy into a defender.
When a man is evolving in character, he is, however,
confronted with a difficulty which often alarms and depresses him. He finds
himself shaken by desires from which he shrinks, of which he is ashamed, and
despite his strenuous efforts to shake them off, they none the less cling to
and torment him. They are discordant with his efforts, his hopes, his
aspirations, and yet, in some way, they seem to be his. This painful
experience is due to the fact that the consciousness evolves more rapidly
than the form can change, and the two are to some extent in conflict with
each other. There is a considerable amount of the coarser aggregations still
present in the astral body; but as the desires have become more refined,
they no longer vivify these materials. Some of the old vitality none the
less persists therein, and although these aggregations are decaying they are
not wholly gone.
Now although the man’s Desire-nature [330] is no
longer using these materials for self-expression, they may yet be thrown
into temporary activity from outside, and thus take on a semblance of
vitality as a galvanised corpse might do. The desires of other people -
desire-elementals of an evil kind - may attach themselves to these disused
elements in his astral body, and they may thus be stimulated and revivified,
and cause him to feel as his own the promptings of desires he abhors. Where
such experiences are undergone, let the bewildered combatant take courage;
even in the inrush of these desires, let him repudiate them as none of his,
and know that the elements in him they utilise are of the past, and are
dying, and that the day of their death and of his freedom is at hand.
We may take an example from dream, to show this working
of effete matter in the astral body. A man, in a former life, was a
drunkard, and his after-death experiences had impressed deeply on him a
repulsion for drink; on rebirth, the Ego in the new physical and astral
bodies impressed on them this repulsion, but [331] there was none the
less in the astral body some matter drawn thereinto by the vibrations caused
in the permanent atom by the former drunkenness. This matter is not vivified
in the present life by any craving for drink, nor any yielding to the
drink-habit; on the contrary, in the waking life, the man is sober. But in
dream, this matter in the astral body is stimulated into activity from
without, and the control of the Ego being weak over the astral body,
this matter responds to the drink-craving vibrations that reach it, and the
man dreams that he drinks. Moreover, if there still be in the man a latent
desire for drink, too weak to assert itself during waking consciousness, it
may come up in the dream-state. For physical matter being comparatively
heavy and hard to move, a weak desire has not energy enough to cause
vibrations therein; but that same desire may move the much lighter astral
matter, and so a man may be carried away in a dream by a desire [332]
which has no power over him in his waking consciousness. Such dreams cause
much distress, because not understood. The man should understand that the
dream shows that the temptation is conquered so far as he is concerned, and
that he is only troubled by the corpse of past desires, vivified from
outside on the astral plane, or if from within, then by a dying desire too
weak to move him in his waking moments. The dream is a sign of a victory
well-nigh complete. At the same time it is a warning; for it tells the man
that there is still in his astral body some matter apt to be vivified by
vibrations of the drink-craving, and that therefore he should not place
himself during waking life under conditions where such vibrations may
abound. Until such dreams have entirely ceased, the astral body is not free
from matter that is a source of danger.
2. THE CONFLICT OF DESIRE AND THOUGHT,
We must now return to the struggle in the Desire-nature,
to which reference [333] has already been made, in order to add some
necessary details.
This conflict belongs to what may be called the middle
stage of evolution, that long stage which intervenes between the state of
the man entirely ruled by Desire, grasping all he wants, unchecked by
conscience, undisturbed by remorse, and the state of the highly evolved
spiritual man, in whom Will, Wisdom and Activity work in co-ordinated
harmony. The conflict arises between Desire and Thought - Thought beginning
to understand the relation of itself to the Not-Self and to other separated
selves, and Desire, influenced by the objects around it, moving by
attractions and repulsions, drawn hither and thither by objects that allure.
We must study the stage of evolution in which the
accumulated memories of past experiences, stored in the mind, set themselves
against the gratification of desires which have been proved to lead to pain;
or, to speak more accurately, in which the conclusion drawn by the Thinker
from these accumulated [334] experiences asserts itself in face of a
demand from the Desire-nature for the object which has been stamped as
dangerous.
The habit of grasping and enjoying has been established
for hundreds of lives, and is strong, while the habit of resisting a present
pleasure in order to avoid a future pain is only in course of
establishment, and is consequently very weak. Hence the conflicts between
the Thinker and the Desire-nature end for a long time in a series of
defeats. The young Mind struggling with the mature Desire-body finds itself
constantly vanquished. But every victory of the Desire-nature, being
followed by a brief pleasure and a long pain, gives birth to a new force
hostile to itself that recruits the strength of its opponent. Each defeat of
the Thinker thus sows the seeds of his future victory, and his strength
daily grows while the strength of the Desire-nature diminishes.
When this is clearly understood, we grieve no longer over
our own falls and the falls of those we love; for we know that these falls
are making sure the secure footing of the future, and that in [335]
the womb of pain is maturing the future conqueror.
Our knowledge of right and wrong grows out of experience,
and is elaborated only by trial. The sense of right and wrong, now innate
in the civilised man, has been developed by innumerable experiences. In the
early days of the separated Self all experiences were useful in his
evolution, and brought him the lessons needful for his growth. Gradually he
learned that the yielding to desires which, in the course of their
gratification injured others, brought him pain out of proportion to the
temporary pleasure derived from their satisfaction. He began to attach the
word “wrong” to the desires the yielding to which brought a predominance of
pain, and this the more quickly because the Teachers who guided his early
growth placed on the objects which attracted such desires the ban of Their
disapproval. When he had disobeyed Them and suffering followed, the
impression made on the Thinker was the more powerful for the previous
foretelling, and conscience - the Will to do [336] the right and
abstain from the wrong - was proportionately strengthened.
In this connexion we can readily see the value of
admonition, reproof, and good counsel. All these are stored up in the mind,
and are forces added to the accumulating memories which oppose the
gratification of wrong desire. Granted that the person warned may again
yield when the temptation assails him; that only means that the balance of
strength is still in the wrong desire; when the foretold suffering arrives,
the mind will recall all the memories of warnings and admonitions, and will
engrave the more deeply in its substance the decision: “This desire is
wrong”. The doing of the wrong act merely means that the memory of past pain
is not yet sufficiently strong to overbear the attraction of eagerly
anticipated and immediate pleasure. The lesson needs to be repeated yet a
few times more, to strengthen the memory of the past, and when that is done,
victory is sure. The suffering is a necessary element in the growth of the
soul, and has the promise of that growth within it. Everywhere [337]
around us, if we see aright, is growing good; nowhere is there hopeless
evil.
This struggle is expressed in the sad cry: “What I would,
that I do not; what I would not, that I do”. “When I would do good, evil is
present with me.” The wrong that we do, when the wish is against the doing,
is done by the habit of the past. The weak Will is overpowered by the
strong desire.
Now the Thinker in his conflict with the Desire-nature
calls to his aid that very nature, and strives to awaken in it a desire
which shall be opposed to the desires against which he is waging war. As the
attraction of a weak magnet may be overpowered by that of a stronger one, so
may one desire be strengthened for the overcoming of another, a right desire
may be aroused to combat a wrong one. Hence the value of an ideal.
3. THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL.
An ideal is a fixed mental concept of an inspiring
character, framed for the guidance of conduct, and the formation of an ideal
[338] is one of the most effective means of influencing desire. The
ideal may, or may not, find embodiment in an individual, according to the
temperament of the man who frames it, and it must ever be remembered that
the value of an ideal depends largely on its attractiveness, and that that
which attracts one temperament by no means necessarily attracts another. An
abstract ideal and a personal one are equally good, regarded from a general
standpoint, and that should be selected which has, on the individual
choosing it, the most attractive influence. A person of the intellectual
temperament will usually find an abstract ideal the more satisfactory;
whereas one of the emotional temperament will demand a concrete embodiment
of his thought. The disadvantage of the abstract ideal is that it is apt to
fail in compelling inspiration; the disadvantage of the concrete embodiment
is that the embodiment is apt to fall below the ideal.
The mind, of course, creates the ideal, and either
retains it as an abstraction, or embodies it in a person. The time chosen
[339] for the creation of an ideal should be a time when the mind is
calm and steady and luminous, when the Desire-nature is asleep. Then the
Thinker should consider the purpose of his life, the goal at which he aims,
and with this to guide his choice, he should select the qualities necessary
to enable him to reach that goal. These qualities he should combine into a
single concept, imagining as strongly as he can this integration of the
qualities he needs. Daily he should repeat this integrating process, until
his ideal stands out clearly in the mind, dowered with all beauty of high
thought and noble character, a figure of compelling attractiveness. The man
of intellect will keep this ideal as a pure concept. The man of emotional
nature will embody it in a person, such as the Buddha, the Christ, Shri
Krishna, or some other divine Teacher. In this latter case he will, if
possible, study His life, His teachings, His actions, and the ideal will
thus become more and more strongly vivified, more and more real to the
Thinker. Intense love will spring up in the heart [340] for this
embodied ideal, and Desire will stretch out longing arms to embrace it. And
when temptation assails, and the lower desires clamour for satisfaction,
then the attractive power of the ideal asserts itself, the loftier desire
combats the baser, and the Thinker finds himself reinforced by right desire,
the negative strength of memory which says: “Abstain from the base”, being
fortified by the positive strength of the ideal which says: “Achieve the
heroic”.
The man who lives habitually in the presence of a great
ideal is armed against wrong desires by love of his ideal, by shame of being
base in its presence, by the longing to resemble that which he adores, and
also by the general set and trend of his mind along lines of noble thinking.
Wrong desires become more and more incongruous. They perish naturally,
unable to breathe in that pure clear air.
It may be worth while to remark here, in view of the
destructive results of historical criticism, in the minds of many, that the
value of the ideal Christ, the ideal Buddha, the ideal Krishna, is in no way
[341] injured by any lack of historical data, by any defects in the
proofs of the authenticity of a manuscript. Many of the stories related may
not be historically true, but they are ethically and vitally true. Whether
this incident happened in the physical life of this Teacher or not is a
matter of small import; the re-action of such an ideal character on his
environment is ever profoundly true. The world Scriptures represent
spiritual facts, whether the physical incidents be or be not historically
true.
Thus Thought may shape and direct Desire, and turn it
from an enemy into an ally. By changing the direction of Desire, it becomes
a lifting and quickening instead of a retarding force, and where desires for
objects held us fast in the mire of earth, desire for the ideal lifts us on
strong wings to heaven.
4. THE PURIFICATION OF DESIRE.
We have already seen how much may be done in the
purification of the vehicle of Desire, and the contemplation and worship
[342] of the ideal, which has just been described, is a most potent
means for the purification of Desire. Evil desires die away, as good desires
are encouraged and fostered - die away merely from want of nourishment.
The effort to reject all wrong desires is accompanied by
the firm refusal of thought to allow them to pass on into actions. Will
begins to restrain action, even when Desire clamours for gratification. And
this refusal to permit the action instigated by wrong desire gradually
deprives of all attractive power the objects which erstwhile aroused it.
“The objects of sense … turn away from an abstemious dweller in the body.”
The desires fade away, starved by lack of satisfaction. Abstention from
gratification is a potent means of purification.
There is another means of purification in which the
repulsive force of Desire is utilised, as in the contemplation of the ideal
the attractive force was evoked. It is useful in extreme cases, in which the
lowest desires are tumultuous and insurgent, such desires as lead to the
vices [343] of gluttony, drunkenness and profligacy. Sometimes a man
finds it impossible to get rid of evil desires, and despite all his efforts
his mind yields to their strong impulse, and evil imaginations riot in his
brain. He may conquer by apparent yielding, carrying on the evil
imaginations to their inevitable results. He pictures himself yielding to
the temptations that assail him, and sinking more and more into the grip of
the evil that masters him. He follows himself, as he falls deeper and
deeper, becoming the helpless slave of his passions. He traces with vivid
imagination the stages of his descent, sees his body becoming coarser and
coarser, then bloated and diseased. He contemplates the shattered nerves,
the loathsome sores, the hideous decay and ruin of the once strong and
healthy frame. He fixes his eyes on the dishonoured death, the sad legacy of
shameful memory left to relatives and friends. He faces in thought the other
side of death, and sees the soil and distortion of his vices pictured in the
suffering astral body, and the agony of the craving of desires that may no
longer be [344] fulfilled. Resolutely he forces his shrinking
thoughts to dwell on this miserable panorama of the triumph of wrong
desires, until there rises within him a strong repulsion against them, an
intolerable fear and loathing of the result of present yielding.
Such a method of purification is like the surgeon’s
knife, cutting out a cancer which menaces the life, and, like all surgical
operations, is to be avoided unless no other means of cure remain. It is
better to conquer wrong desire by the attractive force of an ideal, than by
the repulsive force of a spectacle of ruin. But where attraction fails to
conquer, repulsion may perhaps prevail.
There is also a danger in this latter method, since the
coarser matter in the vehicle of Desire is increased by this dwelling in
thought on evil, and the struggle is thereby rendered longer than when it is
possible to throw the life into good desires and high aspirations. Therefore
it is the worse method of the two, only to be accepted when the other is
unattainable. [345]
By higher attraction, by repulsion, or by the slow
teaching of suffering, Desire must be purified. The “must” is not so much a
necessity imposed by an outside Deity, as the imperial command of the Deity
within, who will not be denied. With this true Will of the Divinity, who is
our Self, all divine forces in nature work, and that divine Self who wills
the highest must inevitably in the end subdue all things to himself.
With this triumph comes the ceasing of Desire. For then
external objects no longer either attract or repel the outgoing energies of
Atma, and these energies are entirely directed by Self-determined Wisdom;
that is, Will has taken the place of Desire. Good and evil are seen as the
divine forces that work for evolution, the one as necessary as the other,
the one the complement of the other. The good is the force that is to be
worked with; the evil is the force that is to be worked against; by the
right using of both the powers of the Self are evolved into manifestation.
When the Self has developed the aspect [346] of
Wisdom, he looks on the righteous and the wicked, the saint and the sinner,
with equal eyes, and is therefore equally ready to help both, to reach out
strong hand to either. Desire, which regarded them with attraction and
repulsion, as pleasure-giving and pain-giving, has ceased, and Will, which
is energy directed by Wisdom, brings fitting aid to both. Thus man rises
above the tyranny of the pairs of opposites, and dwells in the Eternal
Peace. [347]
CHAPTER IV.
EMOTION.
1. THE BIRTH OF EMOTION.
EMOTION is riot a simple or primary state of
consciousness, but is a compound made up by the interaction of two of the
aspects of the Self-Desire and Intellect. The play of Intellect on Desire
gives birth to Emotion; it is the child of both, and shows some of the
characteristics of its father, Intellect, as well as of its mother, Desire.
In the developed condition Emotion seems so different
from Desire that their fundamental identity is somewhat veiled; but we can
see this identity either by tracing the development of a desire into an
emotion, or by studying both side by side, and finding that both have the
same characteristics, the same divisions, that the [348] one is, in
fact, an elaborated form of the other, the elaboration being due to the
presence in the later of a number of intellectual elements absent from, or
less markedly prominent in, the earlier.
Let us trace the development of a desire into an emotion
in one of the commonest of human relations, the relation of sex. Here is
desire in one of its simplest forms; desire for food, desire for sexual
union, are the two fundamental desires of all living things - desire for
food to maintain life, desire for sexual union to increase life. In both the
sense of “moreness” is experienced, or, otherwise stated, pleasure is felt.
The desire for food remains a desire; the food is appropriated,
assimilated, loses its separate identity, becomes part of the “Me”. There is
no continued relation between the eater and the food which gives scope for
the elaboration of an emotion. It is otherwise in the sex-relation, which
tends to become more and more permanent with the evolution of the
individuality.
Two savages are drawn towards each other by the
attraction of sex; a passion [349] to possess the other arises in
each; each desires the other. The desire is as simple as the desire for
food. But it cannot be satisfied to the same extent, for neither can wholly
appropriate and assimilate the other; each to some extent maintains his or
her separate identity, and each only partially becomes the “Me” of the
other. There is indeed an extension of the “Me”, but it is by way of
inclusion and not by way of self-identification. The presence of this
persisting barrier is necessary for the transformation of a desire into an
emotion. This makes possible the attachment of memory and anticipation to
the same object, and not to another object similar in kind - as in the case
of food. A continuing desire for union with the same object becomes an
emotion, thoughts thus mingling with the primary desire to possess. The
barrier which keeps the mutually attracted objects as two not one, which
prevents their fusion, while it seems to frustrate really immortalises; were
it swept away, desire and emotion alike would vanish, and the
Twain-become-One must then seek another external [350] object for
the further self-expansion of pleasure.
To return to our savages, desire-united. The woman falls
sick, and ceases, for the time, to be an object of sex-gratification. But
the man remembers past, and anticipates future, delight, and a feeling of
sympathy with her suffering, of compassion for her weakness, arises within
him. The persisting attraction towards her, due to memory and anticipation,
changes desire into emotion, passion into love, and sympathy and compassion
are its earliest manifestations. These, in turn, will lead to his
sacrificing himself to her, waking to nurse her when he would sleep,
exerting himself for her when he would rest. These spontaneous moods of the
love-emotion in him will later solidify into virtues, i.e., will
become permanent moods in his character, showing themselves in response to
the calls of human need to all persons with whom he comes into contact,
whether they attract him or not. We shall see later that virtues are simply
permanent moods of right emotion.
Before, however, dealing with the [351] relation
of ethics and emotion, we must further realise the fundamental identity of
Desire and Emotion by noting their characteristics and divisions. As this is
done, we shall find that emotions do not form a mere jungle, but that all
spring from one root, dividing into two main stems, each of these again
subdividing into branches, on which grow the leaves of virtues and of vices.
This fruitful idea, making possible a science of the emotions, and hence an
intelligible and rational system of ethics, is due to an Indian author,
Bhagavan Das, who has for the first time introduced order into this
hitherto confused region of consciousness. Students of psychology will find
in his Science of the Emotions a lucid treatise, setting forth
this scheme, which reduces the chaos of the emotions into a cosmos, and
shapes therein an ordered morality. The broad lines of exposition followed
here are drawn from that work, to which readers are referred for fuller
details.
We have seen that Desire has two main expressions: desire
to attract, in order to possess, or again to come into contact [352]
with, any object which has previously afforded pleasure; desire to repel, in
order to drive far away, or to avoid contact with, any object which has
previously inflicted pain. We have seen that Attraction and Repulsion are
the two forms of Desire, swaying the Self.
Emotion, being Desire infused with Intellect, inevitably
shows the same division into two. The Emotion which is of the nature of
Attraction, attracting objects to each other by pleasure, the integrating
energy in the universe, is called Love. The Emotion which is of the nature
of Repulsion, driving objects apart from each other by pain, the
disintegrating energy in the universe, is called Hate. These are the two
stems from the root of Desire, and all the branches of the emotions may be
traced back to one of these twain.
Hence the identity of the characteristics of Desire and
Emotion; Love seeks to draw to itself the attractive object, or to go after
it, in order to unite with it, to possess, or be possessed by, it. It binds
by pleasure, by happiness, as Desire binds. [353] Its ties are indeed
more lasting, more complicated, are composed of more numerous and more
delicate threads interwoven into greater complexity, but the essence of
Desire-Attraction, the binding of two objects together, is the essence of
Emotion-Attraction, of Love. And so also does Hate seek to drive away from
itself the repellent object, or to flee from it, in order to be apart from
it, to repulse, or be repulsed by, it. It separates by pain, by unhappiness.
And thus the essence of Desire-Repulsion, the driving apart of two objects,
is the essence of Emotion-Repulsion, of Hate. Love and Hate are the
elaborated and thought-infused forms of the simple Desires to possess and
to shun.
2. THE PLAY OF EMOTION IN THE FAMIILY,
Man has been described as “a social animal” - the
biological way of saying that he develops best in contact with, not in
isolation from, his fellows. His distinctively intellectual characteristics
need, for their evolution, a social medium, and [354] his keenest
pleasures - and hence necessarily his keenest pains - arise in his
relations with others of his own species. They alone can evoke from him the
responses on which his further growth depends. All evolution, all the
calling out of latent powers, is in response to stimuli from without, and,
when the human stage is reached, the most poignant and effective stimuli can
only come from contacts with human beings.
Sex-attraction is the first social bond, and the children
born to the husband and wife form, with them, the first social unit, the
family. The prolonged helplessness and dependence of the human infant give
time for the physical passion of parentage to ripen into the emotion of
maternal and paternal love, and thus give stability to the family, while the
family itself forms a field in which the various emotions inevitably play.
Herein are first established definite and permanent relations between human
beings, and on the harmony of these relations, on the benefits bestowed by
these relations on each member of the family, does the happiness of each
depend. [355]
We can advantageously study the play of Emotion in the
family, since here we have a comparatively simple social unit, which yet
affords a picture in miniature of society at large. We can find here the
origin and evolution of virtues and vices, and see the meaning and object of
morality.
We have already seen how sex-passion evolves, under
stress of circumstances, into the emotion of love, and how this love shows
itself as tenderness and compassion when the wife, instead of being the
equal mate, becomes helpless and dependent, in the temporary physical
inferiority caused, say, by child-bearing. Similarly, should sickness or
accident reduce the husband to the temporary physical inferiority,
tenderness and compassion will flow out to him from the wife. But these
manifestations of love cannot be shown by the stronger without evoking from
the weaker answering love-manifestations; these in the condition of
weakness will have as their natural characteristics trust, confidence,
gratitude, all equally love-emotions coloured by weakness and dependence.
[356] In the relation of parents to children and of children to parents,
where physical superiority and inferiority are far more strongly marked and
persist for a considerable period of time, these love emotions will be
continually manifested on both sides. Tenderness, compassion, protection,
will be constantly shown by the parents to the children, and trust,
confidence, gratitude, will be the constant answer of the children.
Variations in the expression of the love-emotion will be caused by variety
of circumstances, which will call out generosity, forgiveness, patience,
etc., on the part of the parents, and obedience, dutifulness,
serviceableness, etc., on the part of the children. Taking these two classes
of love-emotions, we see that the common essence in the one class is
benevolence, and in the other reverence; the first is love looking downwards
on those weaker, inferior to itself; the other love looking upwards on those
stronger, superior to itself. And we can then generalise and say: Love
looking downwards is Benevolence; Love looking upwards is Reverence; and
these are the [357] several common characteristics of Love from
superiors to inferiors, and Love from inferiors to superiors universally.
The normal relations between husband and wife, and those
between brothers and sisters, afford us the field for studying the
manifestations of love between equals. We see love showing itself as mutual
tenderness and mutual trustfulness, as consideration, respect, and desire
to please, as quick insight into and endeavour to fulfil the wishes of the
other, as magnanimity, forbearance. The elements present in the
love-emotions of superior to inferior are found here, but mutuality is
impressed on all of them. So we may say that the common characteristic of
Love between equals is Desire for Mutual Help.
Thus we have Benevolence, Desire for Mutual Help, and
Reverence as the three main divisions of the Love-Emotion, and under these
all love emotions may be classified. For all human relations are summed up
under the three classes: the relations of superiors to inferiors, of equals
to equals, of inferiors to superiors.
A similar study of the Hate-Emotion in [358] the
family will yield us similar fruits. Where there is hate between husband and
wife, the temporary superior will show harshness, cruelty, oppression to the
temporary inferior, and these will be answered by the inferior with
hate-manifestations characteristic of weakness, such as vindictiveness,
fear, and treachery. These will be even more apparent in the relations
between parents and children, when both are dominated by the Hate-Emotion,
since the disparity is here greater, and tyranny breeds a whole crop of evil
emotions - deceit, servility, cowardice, while the child is helpless, and
disobedience, revolt and revenge as it grows older. Here again we seek a
common characteristic, and find that Hate looking downwards is Scorn, and
looking upwards is Fear.
Similarly, Hate between equals will show itself in anger,
combativeness, disrespect, violence, aggressiveness, jealousy, insolence,
etc.- all the emotions which repel man from man when they stand as rivals,
face to face, not hand in hand. The common characteristic of Hate [359]
between equals will thus be Mutual Injury. And the three main
characteristics of the Hate-Emotion are Scorn, Desire for Mutual Injury,
and Fear.
Love is characterised in all its manifestations by
sympathy, self-sacrifice, the desire to give; these are its essential
factors, whether as Benevolence, as Desire for Mutual Help, as Reverence.
For all these directly serve Attraction, bring about union, are of the very
nature of Love. Hence Love is of the Spirit; for sympathy is the feeling for
another as one would feel for oneself; self-sacrifice is the recognition of
the claim of the other, as oneself; giving is the condition of spiritual
life. Thus Love is seen to belong to the Spirit, to the life-side of the
universe.
Hate, on the other hand, is characterised in all its
manifestations by antipathy, self-aggrandisement, the desire to take; these
are its essential factors, whether as Scorn, Desire for Mutual Injury, or
Fear. All these directly serve Repulsion, driving one apart from another.
Hence, Hate is of Matter, emphasises manifoldness and differences, is
essentially separateness, [360] belongs to the form-side of the
universe.
We have thus far dealt with the play of Emotion in the
family, because the family serves as a miniature of society. Society is only
the integration of numerous family units, but the absence of the blood-tie
between these units, the absence of recognised common interests and common
objects, makes it necessary to find some bond which will supply the place of
the natural bonds in the family. The family units in a Society appear on the
surface as rivals, rather than as brothers and sisters; hence the
Hate-Emotion is more likely to rise than the Love-Emotion, and it is
necessary to find some way of maintaining harmony; this is done by the
transmutation of Love-Emotions into virtues.
3. THE BIRTH OF VIRTUES.
We have seen that when members of a family pass beyond
the small circle of relatives, and meet people whose interests are either
indifferent or opposed to them, there is not between them and the others the
mutual interplay of Love. Rather does [361] Hate show itself, ranging
from the watchful attitude of suspicion to the destroying fury of war. How
then is a society to be composed of the separate family units?
It can only be done by making permanent all the
emotional moods which spring from Love, and by eradicating those which
spring from Hate. A permanent mood of a love-emotion directed towards a
living being is a Virtue; a permanent mood of a hate-emotion directed
against a living being is a Vice. This change is wrought by the Intellect,
which bestows on the emotion a permanent character, seeking harmony in all
relations in order that happiness may result. That which conduces to harmony
and therefore to happiness in the family, springing spontaneously from Love,
is Virtue when practised towards all in every relation of life. Virtue
springs from Love and its result is happiness. So also that which conduces
to disharmony and therefore to misery in the family, springing
spontaneously from Hate, is Vice when practised towards all in all
relations of life. [362]
An objection is raised to this theory, that the permanent
mood of a love-emotion is a virtue, by pointing out that adultery, theft,
and other vices may spring from the love-emotion. Here analysis of the
elements entering into, the mental attitude is necessary. It is complex, not
simple. The act of adultery is motived by love, but not by love alone. There
enter into it also contempt of the honour of another, indifference to the
happiness of another, the selfish grasping at personal pleasure at the cost
of social stability, social honour, social decency. All these spring from
hate-emotions. The love is the one redeeming feature in the whole
transaction, the one virtue in the bundle of sordid vices. Similar analysis
will always show that when the exercise of a love-emotion is wrong, the
wrongness lies in the vices bound up with its exercise, and not in the
love-emotion itself.
4. RIGHT AND WRONG.
Let us now turn, for a moment, to the question of Right
and Wrong, and see the [363] relation they bear to bliss and misery.
For there is an idea widely current that there is something low and
materialistic in the view that virtue is the means to bliss. Many thinly
that this idea degrades virtue, giving it the second place where it should
hold the first, and making it a means instead of an end. Let us then see why
virtue must be the path to bliss, and how this inheres in the nature of
things.
When the Intellect studies the world, and sees the
innumerable relations established therein, and observes that harmonious
relations bring about happiness, and that jarring relations bring about
misery, it sets to work to find out the way of establishing universal
harmony and hence universal bliss. Further, it discovers that the world is
moving along a path which it is compelled to tread - the path of evolution,
and it finds out the law of evolution. For a part, a unit, to set itself
with the law of the whole to which it belongs means peace, harmony, and
therefore happiness, while for it to set itself against that law means
friction, [364] disharmony, and therefore misery. Hence the Right is
that which, being in harmony with the great law, brings bliss, and the Wrong
is that which, being in conflict with the great law, brings misery. When the
intellect, illuminated by the Spirit, sees nature as an expression of divine
Thought, the law of evolution as an expression of the divine Will, the goal
as an expression of divine Bliss, then for harmony with the law of evolution
we may substitute harmony with the divine Will, and the Right becomes that
which is in harmony with the Will of God, and morality becomes permeated
with religion.
5. VIRTUE AND BLISS.
Perfection, harmony with the divine Will, cannot be
separated from bliss. Virtue is the road to bliss, and if anything does not
lead there it is not virtue. The perfection of the divine nature expresses
itself in harmony, and when the scattered “divine fragments” come into
harmony they taste bliss.
This fact is sometimes veiled by [365] another,
i.e., that the practice of a virtue under certain circumstances brings
about misery. That is true, but the misery is temporary and superficial, and
the balance between that outer misery and the inner bliss arising from the
virtuous conduct, is in favour of the latter; and further, the misery is not
due to the virtue but to the circumstances which oppose its practice, to the
friction between the good organism and the evil environment. So when you
strike a harmonious chord amid a mass of discords, for a moment it increases
the discord. The virtuous man is thrown into conflict with evil, but this
should not blind us to the fact that bliss is ever wedded indissolubly to
Right and misery to Wrong. Even though the righteous may suffer temporarily,
nothing but righteousness can lead to bliss. And if we examine the
consciousness of the righteous, we find that he is happier in doing the
right though superficial pain may result, than in doing the wrong which
would ruffle the inner peace. The commission of a wrong act would cause him
inner anguish outweighing the external pleasure. Even in [366] the
case where righteousness leads to external suffering, the suffering is less
than would be caused by unrighteousness. Miss Helen Taylor has well said
that for the man who dies for the sake of truth, death is easier than life
with falsehood. It is easier and pleasanter for the righteous man to die as
a martyr, than to live as a hypocrite.
Since the nature of the Self is bliss, and that bliss is
only hindered in manifestation by resisting circumstances, that which
removes the friction between itself and these circumstances and opens its
onward way must lead to its Self-realisation, i.e., to the
realisation of bliss. Virtue does this, and therefore virtue is a means to
bliss. Where the inner nature of things is peace and joy, the harmony which
permits that nature to unveil itself must bring peace and joy, and to bring
about this harmony is the work of virtue.
6. THE TRANSMUTATION OF EMOTIONS INTO VIRTUES AND VICES.
We have now to see more fully the truth of what was said
above, that virtue [367] grows out of emotion, and how far it is true
that a virtue or a vice is merely a permanent mood of an emotion. Our
definition is that virtue is a permanent mood of the love-emotion, and vice
a permanent mood of the hate-emotion.
The emotions belonging to love are the constructive
energies which, drawing people together, build up the family, the tribe, the
nation. Love is a manifestation of attraction, and hence holds objects
together. This process of integration begins with the family; and the
relations established between its members in the common life of the family
entail, if there is to be happiness, the acting towards each other in a
helpful and kindly way. The obligations necessary for the establishment of
happiness in these relations are called duties, that which is due from one
to the other. If these duties are not discharged the family relations become
a source of misery, since the close contacts of the family make the
happiness of each dependent on the treatment of him by the others. No
relation can be entered into between human beings which does not [368]
establish an obligation between them, a duty of each towards the other.
The husband loves the wife, the wife the husband, and nothing more is needed
to lead each to seek the other’s happiness than the intense spontaneous wish
to make the beloved happy. This leads the one who can give to supply what
the other needs. In the fullest sense, “love is the fulfilling of the law”;
there is no need for the feeling of an obligation, for love seeks ever to
help and to bless, and there is no need for “thou shalt”, or “thou shalt
not”.
But when a person, moved by love to discharge all the
duties of his relation with another, comes into relation with those he does
not love, how is a harmonious relation with them to be established? By
recognising the obligations of the relation into which he has entered, and
discharging them. The doings which grew out of love in the one case present
themselves as obligations, as duties, in the other, where love is not
present. Right reason works the [369] spontaneous actions of love
into permanent obligations, or duties, and the love-emotion, made a
permanent element of conduct, is called a virtue. This is the justification
of the statement that a virtue is the permanent mood of a love-emotion. A
permanent state of emotion is established which will show itself when a
relation is made; the man discharges the duties of that relation; he is a
virtuous man. He is moved by emotions made permanent by the intellect,
which recognises that happiness depends on the establishment of harmony in
all relations. Love, rationalised and fixed by the intellect, is virtue.
In this way may be built up a science of ethics, of which
the laws are as much an inevitable sequence as those on which any other
science is built.
So also between the hate-emotion and vices there is a
similar relation. The permanent mood of a hate-emotion is a vice. One person
injures another, and the second returns the injury; the relation between
these two is inharmonious, productive of misery. And as each expects
[370] injury from the other, each tries to weaken the other’s power to
inflict injury, and this is the spontaneous action of hate. When this mood
becomes permanent, and a man shows it in any relation into which he enters
wherein the opportunity for its manifestation arises, then it is called a
vice. A man of uncontrolled passions and undeveloped nature strikes a blow,
a spontaneous expression of hate. He repeats this often, and it becomes
habitual when he is angry. He inflicts pain and takes pleasure in the
infliction. The vice of cruelty is developed, and if he meets a child or a
person weaker than himself, he will show cruelty merely because he comes
into relation with them. As the love-emotion, guided and fixed by right
reason, is virtue, so the hate-emotion, guided and fixed by distorted and
blinded reason, is vice.
7. APPLICATION OF THE THEORY TO CONDUCT.
When the nature of virtue and vice is thus seen, it is
clear that the shortest way of strengthening the virtues and [372]
eliminating the vices is to work directly on the emotional side of the
character. We can strive to develop the love-emotion, thus affording the
material which the reason will elaborate into its characteristic virtues.
The development of the love-emotion is the most effective way of evolving
the moral character, virtues being but the blossoms and the fruits which
spring from the root of love.
The value of this clear view of the transmutation of
emotions into virtues and vices lies in the fact that it gives us a definite
theory on which we can work; it is as though we were seeking a distant
place, and a map were placed before our eyes; we trace thereon the road
which leads from our present position to our goal. So many really good and
earnest people spend years in vague aspirations after goodness, and yet make
but little progress; they are good in purpose but weak in attainment; this
is chiefly because they do not understand the nature in which they are
working, and the best methods for its culture. They are like a [372]
child in a garden, a child eager to see his garden brilliant with flowers,
but without the knowledge to plant and cultivate them, and to exterminate
the weeds which overgrow his plot. Like the child, they long for the
sweetness of the virtue-flowers, and find their garden overrun with the rank
growth of the weeds of vice.
8. THE USES OF EMOTION.
The uses of the love-emotion are so obvious that it seems
scarcely necessary to dwell upon them, and yet too much stress cannot be
laid on the fact that love is the constructive force in the universe. Having
drawn together the family units, it welds these into larger tribal and
national units, and these it will build in the future into the Brotherhood
of Man. Nor must we omit to note the fact that the smaller units draw out
the love-power and prepare it for fuller expression. Their use is to call
into manifestation the hidden divine power of love within the Spirit, by
giving to it objects close at hand that attract it. The love is not to be
confined [373] within these narrow limits, but, as it gains strength
by practice, it is to spread outwards until it embraces all sentient beings.
We may formulate the law of love: Regard every aged person as your father or
mother; regard every person of similar age as your brother or sister; regard
every younger person as your child. This sums up human relations. The
fulfilment of this law would render earth a paradise, and it is in order
that the earth may become such a paradise that the family exists.
A man who would widen his love-relations should begin to
regard the welfare of his community as he regards the welfare of his own
family. He should try to work for the public good of his community with the
energy and interest with which he works for his family. Later, he will
extend his loving interest and labour to his nation. Then appears the great
virtue of public spirit, the sure precursor of national prosperity. Later
still, he will love and labour for humanity, and finally he will embrace
within his loving care all sentient beings, and will become “the friend of
every creature”. [374]
Few, at the present stage of evolution, are really able
to love humanity, and too many speak of loving humanity who are not ready to
make any sacrifice to help a suffering brother or sister close at hand. The
servant of humanity must not overlook the human beings at his door, nor in
imagination water with sentimental sympathy the distant garden, while the
plants round his doorway are dying from drought.
The uses of hate are not at first so obvious, but are
none the less important. At first, when we study hate and see that its
essence is disintegration, destruction, it may seem all evil; “He who hateth
his brother is a murderer,” saith a great Teacher,
because murder is but an expression of hate; and even when hate does not go
so far as murder, it is still a destroying force; it breaks up the family,
the nation, and wherever it goes it tears people apart. Of what use, then,
is hate?
First, it drives apart incongruous elements, unfit to
combine together, and thus prevents continuing friction. Where incongruous
undeveloped people are [375] concerned, it is better for them to be
driven far apart to pursue their several paths in evolution, than to be kept
within reach of one another, stimulating each other to increased bad
emotions. Secondly, the repulsion felt by the average soul for an evil
person is beneficial, so long as that evil person has the power of leading
him astray; for that repulsion, although it be hate, guards him from an
influence under which he might otherwise succumb. Contempt for the liar, the
hypocrite, the worker of cruelty on the weak, is an emotion useful to the
one who feels it, and also to the one against whom it is directed; for it
tends to preserve the one from falling into similar vices, and it tends to
arouse in the despised person a feeling of shame that may lift him from the
mire in which he is plunged. So long as a person has any tendency to a sin,
so long is hatred against those who practise the sin protective and useful.
Presently, as he evolves, he will distinguish between the evildoer and the
evil, and will pity the [376] evil-doer and confine his hatred to the
evil. Later still, secure in virtue, he will hate neither the evil-doer nor
his evil, but will see tranquilly a low stage of evolution, out of which he
will strive to lift his younger brother by fitting means. “Righteous
indignation”, “noble scorn”, “just wrath”, all are phrases which recognise
the usefulness of these emotions, while seeking to veil the fact that they
are essentially forms of hate - a veiling which is due to the feeling that
hate is an evil thing. None the less are they essentially forms of hate,
whatever they may be called, though they play a useful part in evolution,
and their storms purify the social atmosphere. Intolerance, of evil is far
better than indifference to it, and until a man is beyond the reach of
temptation to any given sin, intolerance of those who practise it is for him
a necessary safeguard.
Let us take the case of a man little evolved; he desires
to avoid gross sins, but yet feels tempted to them. The desire to avoid them
will show itself as hatred of those in whom he sees them; to check this
hatred would be to plunge him into temptations he is not yet strong enough
to resist. As he evolves further and further [377] from the danger of
yielding to temptation, he will hate the sins, but will pityingly sympathise
with the sinner. Not till he has become a saint can he afford not to hate
the evil.
When in ourselves we feel repulsion from a person we may
be sure that we have in us some lingering traces of that which we dislike
in him. The Ego, seeing a danger, drags his vehicles away. A man, perfectly
temperate, feels less repulsion towards the drunkard than a temperate man
who occasionally exceeds. A woman, utterly pure, feels no repulsion from a
fallen sister, from whose contact the less pure would withdraw their skirts.
When we reach perfection, we shall love the sinner as well as the saint, and
perchance may show the love more to the sinner, since the saint can stand
alone, but the sinner will fall if he be not loved.
When the man has risen to the point where he hates
neither sinner nor sin, then the disintegrating force - which is hate among
human beings - becomes simply an energy to be used for destroying the
obstacles which embarrass the path of evolution. When perfected wisdom
guides [378] the constructive and destructive energies, and perfected
love is the motive power, then only can the destructive force be used
without incurring the root-sin of the feeling of separateness. To feel
ourselves different from others is the “great heresy”, for separateness,
when the whole is evolving towards unity, is opposition to the Law. The
feeling of separateness is definitely wrong, whether it leads to one’s
thinking oneself more righteous or more sinful. The perfect saint identifies
himself with the criminal as much as with another saint, for the criminal
and the saint are alike divine, although in different stages of evolution.
When a man can feel thus, he touches the life of the Christ in man. He does
not think of himself as separate, but as one with all. To him his own
holiness is the holiness of humanity, and the sin of any is his sin. He
builds no barrier between himself and the sinner, but pulls down any barrier
made by the sinner, and shares the sinner’s evil while sharing with him his
good.
Those who can feel the truth of this “counsel of
perfection” should, in their [379] daily lives, seek to practise it,
however imperfectly. In dealing with the less advanced, they should ever
seek to level the dividing wall. For the sense of separateness is subtle,
and endures till we achieve Christhood. Yet by this effort we may gradually
lessen it, and to strive to identify ourselves with the lowest is to
exercise the constructive energy which holds the worlds together, and to
become channels for the divine love. [380]
CHAPTER V.
EMOTION (continued).
1. THE TRAINING OF EMOTION.
EMOTION is, we have seen, the motive power in man:
it stimulates thought; it impels to action; it is as steam to the engine;
without it man would be inert, passive. But there are many who are the
continual prey of their emotions; who are hurried hither and thither by
emotions, as a rudderless ship by stormy winds upon the ocean; who are
tossed high and dragged low by surges of joyous and painful feelings; who
alternate between exaltation and despair. Such a person is swayed,
subjugated by emotions, continually harassed by their conflict. He is more
or less a chaos within, and is erratic in his outward actions, moved by the
impulse of the moment, without due consideration for surrounding [381]
circumstances, such consideration as would make his actions
well-directed. He is often what is called a good person, inspired by
generous motives, stirred into kindly actions, full of sympathy with
suffering and eager to bring relief, plunging quickly into action intended
to aid the sufferer. We have not here to do with the indifferent or the
cruel, but with one whose emotions hurry him into action, before he has
considered the conditions or forecast the results of his activity, beyond
the immediate relief of the pain before his view. Such a person - though
moved by a desire to help, though the stimulating emotion is sympathy and
desire to relieve suffering -often does more harm than good in consequence
of the inconsiderateness of his action. The emotion which impels him springs
from the love-side of his nature, from the side which draws people together,
and which is the root of the constructive and preserving virtues; and in
this very fact lies the danger of such a person. If the emotion had its root
in evil, he would be the first to eradicate it; but just because it is
rooted in that love-emotion whence spring all the [382] social
virtues, he does not suspect it, he does not endeavour to control it. “I am
so sympathetic; I am so much moved by suffering; I cannot bear the sight of
misery.” In all such phrases, a certain self-praise is implied, though the
tone may be one of deprecation. Truly, sympathy is admirable, Qua
sympathy, but its ill-directed exercise is often provocative of mischief.
Sometimes it injures the very object of sympathy, and leaves him finally in
worse case than at first. Too often unwise forms of relief are adopted, more
to remove the pain of the sympathiser than to cure the ill of the sufferer,
and a momentary pang is stopped at the cost of a lasting injury, really,
though not avowedly, to relieve the pain of the onlooker. The re-action of
sympathy on the sympathetic person is good, deepening the love-emotion; but
the action on others is too often bad, owing to the lack of balanced
thought. It is easy, at the sight of pain, to fill earth and sky with our
shrieks, till all the air is throbbing; it is hard to pause, to measure the
cause of pain and the cure, and then to apply a remedy which heals [383]
instead of perpetuating. Right season must govern and direct emotion, if
good is to result from its exercise. Emotion should be the impulse to
action, but not its director; direction belongs to the intelligence, and
its guiding prerogative should never be wrenched away from it. Where the
consciousness thus works, having strong emotion as the impulse, and right
reason as director, there is the sympathetic and wise man who is useful to
his generation.
Desires have been well compared to horses harnessed to
the chariot of the body, and desires are rooted in emotions. Where the
emotions are uncontrolled they are like plunging, unbroken horses that
imperil the safety of the chariot and threaten the life of the charioteer.
The reins have been compared to the mind, the reins that guide the horses,
restraining or loosening as is needed. There is well imaged the
relationship between emotion, intelligence, and action. Emotion gives the
movement, intelligence controls and guides, and then the Self will, use
activity to the best advantage, as becomes the ruler of the emotions, not
their victim. [384]
With the development of that aspect of consciousness
which will show itself as Buddhi in the sixth sub-race, and more completely
in the sixth Root-Race, the emotional nature rapidly evolves in some of the
advanced fifth Race, and often, for a time, offers many troublesome and even
distressing symptoms. As evolution proceeds, these will be outgrown, and
the nature will become balanced as well as strong, wise as well as generous;
meanwhile the rapidly developing nature will be stormy and often
distressful, and will suffer keenly and long. Yet in those very sufferings
lies its future strength as its present purification, and in proportion to
the sharpness of the sufferings will be the greatness of the result. It is
in these powerful natures that Buddhi is struggling to birth, and the
anguish of the travail is upon them. Presently Buddhi, the Christ, the
“little child”, will be born, Wisdom and Love in one, and this, united to
high intelligence, is the spiritual Ego, the true Inner Man, the Ruler
Immortal.
The student, who is studying his own nature in order to
take his own evolution [385] in hand and direct its future course,
must carefully observe his own strength and his own weakness, in order to
regulate the one and correct the other. In unevenly developed persons
intellect and emotion are apt to vary in inverse ratio to each other; strong
emotions go with weak intelligence, and strong intelligence with weak
emotions; in one case the directing power is weak, in the other the motive.
The student, then, in his self-analysis, must see whether his intelligence
is well-developed, if he finds his emotions to be strong; he must test
himself to discover whether he is unwilling to look at things in “the clear
dry light of intellect”; if he feels repelled when a subject is presented to
him in this light, he may rest assured that the emotional side of his nature
is over-developed in proportion to the intellectual side. For the
well-balanced man would resent neither the clear light of the directive
intelligence, nor the strong force of the motive emotion. If, in the past,
one side has been over-cultivated, if the emotions have been fostered to the
detriment of the intelligence, then the efforts [386] should be
turned to the strengthening of the intellect, and the resentment which
arises against a coldly intellectual presentation should be sternly curbed,
the difference between intelligence and sympathy being recognised.
2. THE DISTORTING FORCE OF EMOTION.
One of the things most apt to be overlooked by the
emotional person is the way in which emotion fills his surrounding
atmosphere with its vibrations, and thereby biasses the intelligence;
everything is seen through this atmosphere, and is coloured and distorted by
it, so that things do not reach the intelligence in their true form and
colour, but arrive twisted and discoloured. Our aura surrounds us, and
should be a pellucid medium through which all in the outer world should
reach us in its own form and colour; but when the aura is vibrating with
emotion it cannot act as such a medium, and all is refracted that passes
into it, and reaches us quite other than it is. If a person is under water
and a stick is put near him [387] in the air, and he tries to touch
it, his hand will be wrongly directed, for he will put his hand to the place
at which he sees the stick, and as the rays coming from it are refracted on
entering the water, the stick will be, for him, displaced. Similarly when an
impression from the outer world reaches us through an aura over-charged with
emotion, its proportions are distorted, and its position misjudged; hence
the data supplied to the intelligence are erroneous, and the judgment
founded upon them will therefore necessarily be wrong, however accurately
the intelligence may work.
Even the most careful self-analysis will not entirely
protect us against this emotional disturbance. The intellect ever tends to
judge favourably that which we like, unfavourably that which we dislike,
owing to the “refraction” above-named. The arguments in favour of a certain
course are thrown into a strong light by our desire to follow it, and the
arguments against it are thrown into the shade. The one seems so clear and
forcible, the other so dubious and feeble. And to our [388] mind,
seeing through the emotion, it is so sure that we are right, and that
anyone, who does not see as we do, is biassed by prejudice or is wilfully
perverse. Against this ever-present danger, we can only guard by care and
persistent effort, but we cannot finally escape it until we transcend the
emotions, and become absolutely their ruler.
One way remains in which we can aid ourselves to a right
judgment, and that is by studying the workings of consciousness in others,
and in weighing their decisions under circumstances similar to our own. The
judgments which most repel us are those most likely to be useful to us,
because made through an emotional medium very different from our own. We can
compare their decisions with ours, and by noting the points that affect them
most and ourselves least, and that weigh most heavily with us and most
lightly with them, we may disentangle the emotional from the intellectual
elements in the judgments. And even where our conclusions are mistaken, the
effort to arrive at them is corrective and illuminative; it [389]
aids in the mastery of the emotions, and strengthens the intellectual
element. Such studies should of course be made when there is no emotional
disturbance, and its fruits should be stored up for use at the times when
the emotions are strong.
3. METHODS OF RULING THE EMOTIONS.
The first and most powerful method for obtaining mastery
of the emotions is - as in all that touches consciousness - Meditation.
Before contact with the world has disturbed the emotions, meditation should
be resorted to. Coming back into the body after the period of physical
sleep, from a world subtler than the physical, the Ego will find his
tenement quiet, and can take possession calmly of the rested brain and
nerves. Meditation later in the day, when the emotions have been disturbed,
and when they are in full activity, is not as efficacious. The quiet time
which is available after sleep is the right season for effective meditation,
the desire-body, the emotional nature, being more tranquil than after it has
[390] plunged into the bustle of the world. From that peaceful
morning hour will stream out the influence which will guard during the day,
and the emotions, soothed and stilled, will be more amenable to control.
Where it is possible, it is well to forecast the
questions which may arise during the day, and to come to conclusions as to
the view to be taken, the conduct to be pursued. If we know that we shall be
placed under certain conditions that will arouse our emotions, we can decide
beforehand on our mental attitude, and even come to a, decision on our
action. Supposing such a decision has been reached, then when the
circumstances arise, that decision should be recalled and acted upon, even
though the swell of the emotions may impel towards a different course. For
instance, we are going to meet a person for whom we have a strong affection,
and we decide in our meditation on the course that it is wisest to pursue,
deciding in the clear light of calm intelligence what is best for all
concerned. To this decision we should adhere, even [391] though there
is the inclination to feel: “I had not given the proper weight to that
view”. As a matter of fact, under these conditions, overweight is given, the
proper weight having been given in the calmer thought; and it is the wisest
plan to follow the path previously chalked out despite the emotional
promptings of the moment. There may be a blunder of judgment, but if the
blunder be not seen during meditation it is not likely to be seen during a
swirl of emotions.
Another method of curbing the emotions is to think over
what is going to be said, before speaking, to put a bridle on the tongue.
The man who has learned to control his speech has conquered everything,
says an ancient eastern law-giver. The person who never speaks a sharp or
ill-considered word is well on the way to control emotion. To rule speech is
to rule the whole nature. It is a good plan not to speak - to deliberately
check speech - until one is clear as to what one is going to say, is sure
that the speech is true, that it is adapted to the person to whom it is to
be addressed, and that it is such as ought to [392] be spoken. Truth
comes first and foremost, and nothing can excuse falsity of speech; many a
speech uttered under stress of emotion is false, either from exaggeration or
distortion. Then, the appropriateness of the speech to the person addressed
is too often forgotten, in the hurry of emotion, or the eagerness of strong
feeling. A quite wrong idea of a great truth may be presented, if the point
of view of the person addressed is not borne in mind; sympathy is needed,
the seeing as he sees, for only then can the truth be useful and helpful.
One is not trying to help oneself, but to help another, in putting the truth
before him. Perhaps the conception of law as changeless, inviolable,
absolutely impartial, may, to the speaker, be inspiring, strengthening,
uplifting; whereas that conception is ruthless and crushing to an
undeveloped person, and injures instead of helps. Truth is not meant to
crush, but to elevate, and we misuse truth when we give it to one that is
not ready. There is plenty to suit the needs of each, but discretion is
needed to choose wisely, and enthusiasm must not force a premature
enlightenment. [393] Many a young Theosophist does more harm than
good by his over-eager pressing on others of the treasures he prizes so
highly. Lastly, the form of the speech, the necessity or the usefulness of
its utterance, should be considered. A truth that might help may be changed
into a truth that hinders by the way in which it is put. “Never speak what
is untrue, never speak what is unpleasant”, is a golden rule of speech. All
speech should be truthful, sweet and agreeable. This agreeableness of
speech is too often forgotten by well-meaning people, who even pride
themselves on their candour, when they are merely rude and indifferent to
the feelings of those whom they address. But that is neither good breeding
nor religion, for the unmannerly is not the religious. Religion combines
perfect truth with perfect courtesy. Moreover, the superfluous, the useless,
is mischievous, and there is much injury done by the continual bubbling over
of frivolous emotions in chatter and small talk. People who cannot bear
silence, and are ever chattering, fritter away their intellectual and moral
forces, as well as give utterance to a hundred follies, [394] better
left unsaid. To be afraid of silence is a sign of mental weakness, and calm
silence is better than foolish speech. In silence the emotions grow and
strengthen, while remaining controlled, and thus the motive power of the
nature increases and is also brought into subjection. The power of being
silent is great, and often exercises a most soothing effect; on the other
hand, he who has learned to be silent must be careful that his silence does
not trench on his courtesy, that he does not, by inappropriate silence
among others, make them feel chilled and uncomfortable.
Some may fear that such a consideration before speech as
is outlined may so hinder exchange of thought as to paralyse conversation;
but all who have practised such control will bear witness that, after a
brief practice, no noticeable interval is caused before the reply is
uttered. Swifter than lightning is the movement of the intelligence, and it
will flash over the points to be considered while a breath is being drawn.
It is true, that at first there will be slight hesitation, but in a few
weeks no pause will be required, and the review of [395] the proposed
utterance will be made too swiftly to cause any obstruction. Many an orator
can testify that, in the rapid torrent of a declamatory period, the mind
will sit at ease, turning about alternative sentences and weighing their
respective merits ere one is chosen and the rest are cast aside; and yet
none in the rapt audience will know aught of this by-play, or dream that
behind the swift utterance there is any such selective action going on.
A third method of mastering emotion is by refraining from
acting on impulse. The hurry to act is characteristic of the modern mind,
and is the excess of the promptitude which is its virtue. When we consider
life calmly we realise that there is never any need for hurry; there is
always time enough, and action, however swift, should be well considered and
unhurried. When an impulse comes from some strong emotion, and we spring
forward in obedience, without consideration, we act unwisely. If we train
ourselves to think, before we act in all ordinary affairs, then if an
accident or anything else should happen in which prompt action is [396]
necessary, the swift mind will balance up the demands of the moment and
direct swift action, but there will be no hurry, no inconsiderate unwise
blundering.
“But should I not follow my intuition?” some one may ask.
Impulse and intuition are too often confused, though radically different in
origin and characteristics. Impulse springs from the desire-nature, from the
consciousness working through the astral body, and is an energy flung
outwards in response to a stimulus from outside, an energy undirected by
the intelligence, hasty, unconsidered, headlong. Intuition springs from the
spiritual Ego, and is an energy flowing outwards to meet a demand from
outside, an energy directed by the spiritual Ego, strong, calm, purposeful.
For distinguishing between the two, until the nature is thoroughly balanced,
calm consideration is necessary, and delay is essential; an impulse dies
away under such consideration and delay; an intuition grows clearer and
stronger under such conditions; calmness enables the lower mind to hear it,
and to feel its serene imperiousness. Moreover, if what [397] seems
to be an intuition is really a suggestion from some higher Being, that
suggestion will sound the louder for our quiet meditation, and will lose
nothing of force by such calm delay.
It is true that there is a certain pleasure in the
abandonment to the headlong impulse, and that the imposed restraint is
painful for a time. But the effort to lead the higher life is full of these
renounceals of pleasure and acceptances of pain, and gradually we come to
feel that there is a higher joy in the quiet considerate action than in the
yielding to the tumultuous impulse, and that we have eliminated a constant
source of regret. For constantly does such yielding prove a source of
sorrow, and the impulse is found to be a mistake. If the proposed action be
good, the purpose to perform it will be made stronger, not weaker, by
careful thought. And if the purpose grows weaker with the thinking, then is
it sure that it comes from the lower source, not from the higher.
Daily meditation, careful consideration before speech,
the refusal to yield to impulse, these are the chief methods of [398]
turning the emotions into useful servants instead of dangerous masters.
4. THE USING OF EMOTION.
Only he can use an emotion who has become its master, and
who knows that the emotions are not himself but are playing in the vehicles
in which he dwells, and are due to the interaction between the Self and the
Not-Self. Their ever-changing nature marks them as belonging to the
vehicles; they are stirred into activity by things without, answered to by
the consciousness within. The attribute of consciousness that gives rise to
emotions is Bliss, and pleasure and pain are the motions in the
desire-vehicle caused by the contacts of the outer world, and by the
response through it to these of the Self as Bliss; just as thoughts are the
motions due to similar contacts and to the response to them of the Self as
Knowledge. As the Self knows itself, and distinguishes itself from its
vehicles, it becomes ruler of the emotions, and pleasure and pain become
equally modes of Bliss. [399]
As progress is made, it will be found that greater
equilibrium is attained under stress of pleasure and pain, and that the
emotions no longer upset the balance of the mind. So long as pleasure
elates, and pain paralyses, so that the performance of duty is hindered and
hampered, so long is a man the slave, and not the ruler, of his emotions.
When he has learned to rule them, the greatest wave of pleasure, the keenest
sting of pain, can be felt, and yet the mind will remain steady and address
itself calmly to the work in hand. Then whatever comes is turned into use.
Out of pain is gained power, as out of pleasure are gained vitality and
courage. All become forces to help, instead of obstacles to hinder.
Of these uses oratory may serve as an illustration. You
hear a man fired by passion, his words tumbling over each other, his
gestures violent; he is possessed by, carried away by, emotion, but he does
not sway his audience. The orator who sways is the master of his emotions
and uses them to affect his audience; his words are deliberate and
well-chosen even in the [400] rush of his speech, his gestures
appropriate and dignified. He is not feeling the emotions, but he has
felt them, and he now uses his past to shape the present. In proportion
as a speaker has felt and has risen above his emotions will be his power to
use them. No one without strong emotions can be a great speaker; but the
greatness grows as the emotions are brought under control. A more effective
explosion results from a careful arrangement of the explosives and a
deliberate application of the match, than by flinging them down anyhow, and
the match after them, in the hope that something may catch.
So long as anyone is stirred by the emotions, the clear
vision needed for helpful service is blurred. The valuable helper is the man
who is calm and balanced, while full of sympathy. What sort of a doctor
would he be who, in the midst of performing an operation, should burst into
tears? Yet many people are so distressed by the sight of suffering that
their whole being is shaken by it, and they thus increase the suffering
instead [401] of relieving it. All emotion causes strong vibrations,
and these pass from one to another. The effective helper must be calm and
steady, remaining unshaken and radiating peace. One who stands on a rock
above the waves can help another to gain that vantage-ground better than if
he were himself battling with the waves.
Another use of the emotions when they are thoroughly in
hand is to call up and use the appropriate one to rouse in another person an
emotion beneficial to him. If a person be angry, the natural answer to his
vibrations is anger in the one he meets, for all vibrations tend to be
sympathetically reproduced. As we all have emotion-bodies, any body
vibrating near us in a particular way tends to cause similar vibrations in
us, if we have in our bodies the appropriate matter. Anger awakens anger,
love awakens love, gentleness awakens gentleness. When we are masters of our
emotions, and feel the surge of anger rising in response to the vibrations
of anger in another, we shall at once check this answer, and shall let
[402] the waves of anger dash up against us, while we remain unmoved.
The man who can hold his own emotion-body quiet, while those of others are
vibrating strongly around him, has learned well the lesson of self-control.
When this is done, he is ready to take the next step, to meet the vibration
of an evil emotion with the vibration of the corresponding good emotion, and
thus he not only withholds himself from anger, but sends out vibrations
that tend to quiet the anger vibrations of the other. He answers anger by
love, wrath by gentleness.
At first, this answer must be deliberate, of set purpose,
and angry people can be taken to practise on. When one comes in our way, we
utilise him. The attempt will be, doubtless, cold and dry in the beginning,
with only the will to love in it and none of the emotion; but after a while,
the will to love will produce a little emotion, and at last a habit will be
established, and kindness will be the spontaneous answer to unkindness. The
steady, deliberate practice of answering thus the vibrations of wrong
emotions reaching us from outside [403] will establish a habit in the
emotion-body, and it will respond rightly automatically.
The teaching of all the great Masters of Ethics is the
same: “Return good for evil”. And the teaching is based on this interchange
of vibrations, caused by love and hate-emotions. The return of evil
intensifies it, while the return of good neutralises the evil. To stir
love-emotions in others by sending to them a stream of such emotions, so as
to stimulate all that is good in them and to weaken all that is bad, is the
highest use to which we can put our emotions in daily human service. It is a
good plan to bear in mind a list of correspondences in emotions, and to
practise accordingly, answering pride by humility, discourtesy by
compassion, arrogance by submission, harshness by gentleness, irritability
by calmness. Thus is a nature built up which answers all evil emotions by
the corresponding good ones, and which acts as a benediction on all around,
lessening the evil in them and strengthening the good. [404]
5. THE VALUE OF EMOTION IN EVOLUTION.
We have seen that emotion is the motive power in man, and
to turn it into a helper in evolution we must utilise it to lift and not
allow it to degrade. The Ego, in his evolution, needs “points to draw him”
upwards, as says the Voice of the Silence, for the upward way is
steep, and an attractive object above us, towards which we can strive, is an
aid impossible to over-estimate. Only too often we lag on the way, and feel
no desire to proceed; aspiration is inert, the longing to rise has fled.
Then may we summon emotion to our aid, by twining it around some object of
devotion, and thus gain the impetus we need, the lifting force we crave.
This form of emotion is what is often called
hero-worship, the power to admire and love greatly one who is nobler than
oneself, and to be able thus to love and admire is to have at disposal one
of the great lifting forces in human evolution. Hero-worship is often
decried because a perfect ideal is not possible to find among men living in
the world, but a partial ideal [405] that can be loved and emulated
is a help in quickening evolution. It is true that there will be weaknesses
in such a partial ideal, and it is necessary to distinguish between the
heroic qualities and the weaknesses found in conjunction with them; but the
attention should be fixed on the heroic qualities that stimulate, and not on
the blemishes that mar everyone who has not as yet transcended humanity. To
recognise that the weaknesses are of the Not-Self and are passing, while
the nobility is of the Self that endures, to love what is great, and to be
able to pass over what is small, that is the spirit that leads to
discipleship of the Great Ones. Only good is gained by the hero-worshipper
from his ideal, if he honour the greatness and disregard the weakness, and
on the hero himself will fall the karma of his own shortcomings.
But it is said: if we thus recognise the nobility of the
Self in the midst of human weaknesses, we are only doing what we should do
with all, and why make a hero out of anyone in whom there is still any human
weakness? Because of the help [406] our hero gives us as an
inspiration and a measure of our own achievement. No ordinary person can be
turned into a hero; it is only when the Self shines out with more than
ordinary lustre that the inclination to hero-worship arises. The man is
a hero, though not yet super-human, and his weaknesses are but as
spots in the sun. There is a proverb which says: “No man is a hero to his
valet-de-chambre,” and the cynic reads this as meaning that the most heroic
man owes his greatness to distance. But is not the meaning rather that the
valet-soul, intent on the shine of a boot and the set of a necktie, cannot
appreciate that which makes the hero, having naught in him that can sound
sympathetically with the notes the hero strikes? For to be able to admire
means to be able to achieve, and love and reverence for the great is a sign
that a man is growing like them.
When emotion is thus aroused, we should judge ourselves
by our ideal, and be ashamed to do or think aught that would bring a shade
of sorrow over the eyes of him we revere. His presence should be with us, as
an up-lifter, until, judging [407] ourselves in the light of the
greater achievement, we find ourselves also beginning to achieve.
That the pure light of the Self shines through none who
walk the miry paths of earth is true, but there are some through whom enough
light shines to lighten the darkness, and to help us to see where to plant
our feet. It is better to thank and honour these, to rejoice and be glad in
them, than to belittle them because they are not wholly of heaven, because
some touches of human weakness still entangle their feet. Blessed indeed are
they who have in themselves the hero-nature and hence recognise their elder
kin; for them waits the open gate to the upper reaches, and the more they
love, the more they honour, the swifter will be their approach to that
gateway. No better karma comes to a man than to find the hero who may bear
him company to the entering; no sadder karma than to have seen him, in an
illuminated moment, and then to have cast him aside, blinded by an
imperfection he is out-growing. [408]
CHAPTER VI.
THE WILL.
1. THE WILL WINNING ITS FREEDOM.
WE return now to the consideration of that power in man
with which we started - the Will. The student will remember that it was
stated that it was the Will of the Self, of the individualised Self -
individualised though as yet unconscious of its individualisation - which
drew him into manifestation. Not by compulsion, not by external necessity,
not by anything opposed to him from outside, but by the great Will of which
his own Will is part - his Will individualised as a centre but not yet cut
off by circumference of matter - pulsing in him as the life-blood of the
mother pulses in the yet unborn child, he reaches forth towards
manifestation, dimly longing for the rich thrill of life enveiled in
[409] matter, for the exercise of powers yearning for activity, for the
experience of worlds tumultuously full of movement. That which consciously
the LOGOS wills - the LOGOS willing to become incarnate in a universe - all
the centres of individualised life within Him also will, though as it were
blindly and groping towards a fuller life. It is the Will to live, to know,
and that forth-going Will sets to manifestation.
We have seen that this Will, the Power of the Self,
becomes what we call Desire on the denser planes of matter, and that,
blinded by matter and unable to see its way, its direction is determined by
the attractions and repulsions playing upon it from external objects. Hence
we cannot say of the Self at this period that he is Self-directed; he is
directed by attractions and repulsions that touch him at his periphery. We
have further seen that as Desire came into touch with Intelligence, and
these two aspects of the Self played upon each other, emotions evolved,
showing traces of their parentage, of their Desire-mother and of their
Intelligence-father. And we, have studied the methods by [410] which
emotion may be controlled, put to its true uses, and thus rendered
serviceable instead of dangerous in human evolution.
We have now to consider how this Will, the hidden Power
which has ever moved to activity though not yet controlling activity, slowly
wins to freedom, that is to Self-determination. In a moment we shall
consider what is meant by this word “freedom”.
Essentially and fundamentally free, in its origin as the
Power of the Self, Will has become bound and limited in its attempts to
master the matter into which the Self has entered. We need not shrink from
saying that matter masters the Self, not the Self matter, and this it does
by virtue of the Self regarding matter as himself, identifying himself with
it; as he wills through it, thinks through it, acts through it, it becomes
to him verily himself, and deluded he cries: “I am this!” and while it
limits him and binds him, he, feeling it to be himself, cries: “I am free.”
Yet is this mastering of the Self by matter but a temporary thing, for the
matter is ever changing, coming and going, impermanent, [411] and is
ever being shaped and unconsciously drawn round and rejected by the
unfolding forces of the Self, permanent amid the impermanent.
Let us come to the stage in human evolution in which
memory has grown stronger than the instinctive outgoing to the pleasant and
withdrawing from the painful; in which Intelligence rules Desire, and reason
has triumphed over impulse. The result of the age-long evolution is to be
reaped, and part of that result is freedom.
While the Will is expressing itself as Desire, determined
in its direction by outside attractions, it is obviously not free, but very
distinctly bound. Just as any living creature might be dragged by a force
greater than its own force in a direction unchosen by it, so is the Will
dragged away by the attraction of objects, pulled along the path which
promises pleasure, which is agreeable to pursue; it is not active as a
Self-determined force, but on the contrary the Self is being dragged away by
an external and compelling attraction. [412]
No more vivid picture of the Self, under these
conditions, can be given than that before quoted from an ancient Hindu
Scripture, in which the Self is limned as the rider in a chariot, and the
senses, attracted by pleasure-giving objects, are the ungovernable horses
that carry away the chariot of the body and the helpless rider within it.
Although the Will be the very Power of the Self, so long as the Self is
being carried away by these unruly horses, he is emphatically bound and not
free. It is idle to speak of a free Will in a man who is the slave of the
objects around him. He is ever in bondage, he can exercise no choice; for
though we may think of such a one as choosing to follow the path along which
attractions draw him, there is, in truth, no choice nor thought of choice.
So long as attractions and repulsions determine the path, all talk of
freedom is empty and foolish. Even though a man feels himself as choosing
the desirable object, the feeling of freedom is illusory, for he is dragged
by the attractiveness of the object and the longing for pleasure in
himself. He is as much, or as [413] little, free as the iron is free
to move to the magnet. The movement is determined by the strength of the
magnet and the nature of the iron answering to its attraction.
To understand what we mean by freedom of the Will, we
must clear away a preliminary difficulty which faces us in the word
“choice”. When we appear to be free to choose, does that so-called freedom
of choice mean freedom of Will? Or is it not true to say that freedom of
choice only means that no external force compels us to elect one or another
of alternatives? But the important question that lies behind this is: “What
makes us choose?” Whether we are free to act when we have chosen is a very
different thing from whether we are “free” to choose, or whether the choice
is determined by something that lies behind.
How often we hear it said as a proof of the freedom of
the Will: “I am free to choose whether I will leave the room or not; I am
free to choose whether I will drop this weight or not”. But such argument is
beside the question. No one denies the power of a person, physically
unconstrained, to leave a room or to stay [414] in it, to drop a
weight or to uphold it. The interesting question is: “Why do I choose?” When
we analyse the choice, we see that it is determined by motive, and the
determinist argues: “Your muscles can uphold or drop the weight, but if
there is a valuable and fragile article underneath, you will not choose to
drop it. That which determines your choice not to drop it is the presence of
that fragile object. Your choice is determined by motives, and the strongest
motive directs it”. The question is not: “Am I free to act”" but: “Am I free
to will?” And we see clearly that the Will is determined by the strongest
motive, and that, so far as that goes, the determinist is right.
In truth, this fact that the Will is determined by the
strongest motive is the basis of all organised Society, of all law, of all
penalty, of all responsibility, of all education. The man whose will is not
thus determined is irresponsible, insane. He is a creature who cannot be
appealed to, cannot be reasoned with, cannot be relied on, a person without
reason, logic, or memory, without the attributes we [415] regard as
human. I n law, a man is regarded as irresponsible when no motive sways him,
when no ordinary reasons affect him; he is insane, and is not amenable to
legal penalties. A Will which is an energy pointing in any direction,
pushing to action without motive, without reason, without sense, might
perhaps be called “free”, but this is not what is meant by “freedom of the
Will”. That Will is determined by the strongest motive must be taken for
granted in any sane discussion of the freedom of the Will.
What then is meant by the freedom of the Will? It can be
but a conditioned, a relative, freedom at most, for the separated Self is a
part of a whole, and the whole must be greater than, must compel, all its
parts. And this is true alike of the Self and of the bodies in which he is
ensheathed. None questions that the bodies are in a realm of law, and move
within law, can move but by law, and the freedom with which they move is but
in relation to each other, and by virtue of the interplay of the countless
forces which balance each other variously and endlessly, [416] and in
this variety and endlessness offer innumerable possibilities and thus a
freedom of movement within a rigidity of bondage. And the Self also is in a
realm of law, nay is himself the very law, as being part of that nature
which is the Being of all beings. No separated Self may escape from the Self
which is all, and, however freely he may move with regard to other separated
Selves, he may not, cannot, move outside the life which informs him, which
is his nature and his law, in which he lives and moves. The parts constrain
not the parts, the separated Selves constrain not the separated Selves; but
the whole constrains and controls the parts, the Self constrains and
controls the Selves. Yet even here, since the Selves are the Self, freedom
starts up from amid apparent bondage, and “none else compels”.
This freedom of a part as regards other parts while in
bondage to the whole may be seen clearly in physical nature. We are parts of
a world whirling through space and revolving also on its own axis, turning
eastwards ever … Of this we know naught, [417] since its motion
carries us with it, and all moves together and at once, and in one
direction. Eastwards we turn with our world, and naught we can do will
change our direction. Yet with regard to each other and to the places about
us, we can move freely and change our relative positions. I may go to the
west of a person or a place, though we are both whirling eastwards
ceaselessly. And of the motion of a part with regard to a part I shall be
conscious, small and slow as it is, while of the vast swift whirling that
carries all parts eastwards and onwards ever, I shall be utterly
unconscious, and shall say in my ignorance: “Behold, I have moved
westwards”. And the high Gods might laugh contemptuously at the ignorance of
the fragment that speaks of the direction of its motion, were it not that
They, being wise, know of the movements within the motion, and of the truth
which is false and yet true.
And yet again may we see how the great Will works onwards
undeviatingly along the path of evolution, and compels all to travel along
that path, and still leaves [418] to each to choose his method of
going, and the fashion of his unconscious working. For the carrying out of
that Will needs every fashion of working and every method of going, and
takes up and utilises all. A man shapes himself to a noble character, and
nourishes lofty aspirations, and seeks ever to do loyal and faithful service
to his fellows; then shall he be brought to birth where great opportunities
cry aloud for workers, and the Will shall be wrought out by him in a nation
that needs such helping, and he shall fill a hero’s part. The part is
written by the great Author: the ability to fill it is of the man’s own
making. Or a man yields to every temptation and becomes apt to evil, and he
uses ill such power as he has, and disregards mercy, justice and truth in
petty ways and in daily life; then shall he be brought to birth where
oppression is needed, and cruelty, and ill ways, and the Will shall be
wrought out by him also in a nation that is working out the results of an
evil past, and he shall be of the weaklings that tyrannise cruelly and
meanly and shame the nation that bears them. Again is the part written
[419] by the great Author, and the ability to fill it is of the man’s
own making. So work the little Wills within the great Will.
Seeing, then, that the Will is determined by motive,
conditioned by the limits of the matter that enveils the separated Self, and
by the Self whereof the Self exercising the Will is part - what mean we by
the freedom of the Will? We mean, surely, that freedom is to be determined
from within, bondage is to be determined from without; the Will is free,
when the Self, willing to act, draws his motive for that volition from
sources that lie within himself, and has not the motive acting upon him
from sources outside.
And truly this is freedom, for the greater Self in which
he moves is one with him: “I am That”; and the vaster Self in which moves
that greater Self is one with that vaster, and says also: “I am That”; and
so on and on, in huger and huger sweeps, if world-systems and
universe-systems be thought of; yet may the lowliest “I” that knows himself
turn inwards and not outwards, and know himself as one with the Inner Self,
the [420] Pratyagatma, the One, and therefore truly free. Looking
outwards he is ever bound, though the limits of his bondage recede
endlessly, unlimitedly; looking inwards he is ever free, for he is BRAHMAN,
the ETERNAL.
When a man is Self-determined, then, we may say that the
man is free, in every sense in which the word freedom is valuable, and his
Self-determination is not bondage, in any harassing sense of that word. That
which in my innermost Self I will to do, that to which none other forces me,
that bears the mark which distinguishes between the free and the bound. How
far in us, in this sense of the word freedom, can we say that our Will is
free? For the most part, but few of us can claim this freedom in any more
than a small portion. Apart from the previously-mentioned bondage to
attractions and repulsions, we are bound within the channels made by our
past thinkings, by our habits - most of all by our habits of thought -by the
qualities and the absence of qualities brought over from past lives, by the
strengths and the [421] weaknesses that were born with us, by our
education and our surroundings, by the imperious compulsions of our stage in
evolution, our physical heredity, and our national and racial traditions.
Hence only a narrow path is left to us in which our Will can run; it strikes
itself ever against the past, which appears as walls in the present.
To all intents and purposes the Will of us is not free.
It is only in process of becoming free, and it will only be free when the
Self has utterly mastered his vehicles and uses them for his own purposes,
when every vehicle is only a vehicle, completely responsive to his every
impulse, and not a struggling animal, ill-broken, with desires of its own.
When the Self has transcended ignorance, vanquishing the habits that are
the marks of past ignorance, then is the Self free, and then will be
realised the meaning of the [422] paradox, “in whose service is
perfect freedom”. For then will it be realised that separation is not, that
the separated Will is not, that, by virtue of our inherent Divinity, our
Will is part of the Divine Will, and that it is which has given us
throughout our long evolution the strength to carry on that evolution, and
that the realisation of the unity of Will is the realisation of freedom.
Along these lines of thought it is that some have found
the ending of the age-long controversy between the “freedom” of the Will
and determinism, and, while recognising the truth battled for by
determinism, have also preserved and justified the inherent feeling: “I am
free, I am not bound”. That idea of spontaneous energy, of forth-going
power from the inner recesses of our being, is based on the very essence of
consciousness, on the “I” which is the Self, that Self which, because
divine, is free.
2. WHY SO MUCH STRUGGLE?
As we survey the long course of evolution, the slow
process of the development [423] of the Will, the question inevitably
rises in the mind: “Why should there be all this struggle and difficulty?
Why should there be so many mistakes and so many falls? Why this long
bondage before freedom can be attained?” Before replying to this, a general
position must be laid down. In answering any question, the limits of that
question must be borne in mind, and the answer must not be judged to be
inadequate, because it does not answer another question that is all the time
present in the background. An answer to a question may be adequate, without
being a final answer to all questions; and its adequacy is not rightly
gauged if it be thrown aside as not answering a further question which may
be propounded. Half the dissatisfaction of many students arises from a
restless impatience that will not deal in any kind of order with the
questions that come thronging to the mind, but demands that they should all
be answered at once, and that the answer to one question should cover all
the others. The adequacy of means must be judged in relation to the end
which those means are [424] designed to bring about. In all cases the
answer must be judged by its relevancy to the question asked, and not by its
not replying to some other allied question lying at the back of the mind.
Thus, the relevancy of any means found to exist in a universe must be
decided by an end found to be aimed at in that universe, and they must not
be judged as though offered as an answer to the further question: “Why
should there be any universe at all?” That question may indeed be asked and
answered, but the proof of the adequacy of a means in a universe to an end,
seen to be aimed at in that universe, will not be that answer. And it is no
evidence that the answer to the original question is inadequate, if the
questioner replies: “Yes, but why should there be a universe?” In replying
to the question: “Why should there be all these mistakes and falls in
treading the path of evolution?” we must take the universe as existing, as a
fact to start with, and must study it in order to discover the end, or, at
least, one of the ends, towards which it is tending. Why it should tend
thither-ward is, as said, [425] a further question, and one of
profoundest interest; but it is by the discovered end that we must judge the
means employed to reach it.
Even a cursory study of the part of the universe in which
we find ourselves shows us that one at least of its ends - if not its end -
is to produce living beings of high intelligence and strong will, capable of
taking an active part in carrying on and guiding the activities of nature
and of co-operating in the general scheme of evolution. Further study,
carried on by the unfolding of the inner qualities and endorsed by ancient
writings, shows us that this world is not alone, but forms one of a series,
that it has been aided in the evolution of its humanity by men of elder
growth, and is to yield men of its own growing for the aiding of younger
worlds in ages yet unborn. Moreover, it shows also a vast hierarchy of
superhuman beings, directing and guiding evolution, and as the centre of the
universe the threefold LOGOS, Ruler and Lord of His system; and it tells
that the fruitage of a system is not only a great hierarchy of mighty
[426] Intelligences, with ranks of ever-lessening splendour stretching
below them, but also this supreme perfection of a LOGOS, as the crown of
all. And it unveils vista after vista of increasing splendour, universes
where each system is but as a world, and so on and on, in ever-widening
range of illimitable glorious fulness of life unending. And then the
question rises: “By what means shall be evolved these mighty Ones, who climb
from the dust to the stars, and from those stars that are the dust of vaster
systems to the stars that are to them as our mire to our sun?”
Thus studied, imagination fails to find a path by which
these self-poised, self-determined Beings can reach that perfect equilibrium
and steadfast inerrancy of wisdom that fits them to be the “nature” of a
system, save just that path of struggle and of experience along which we
strive today. For could there be an extra-kosmic God, with nature other than
that of the Self we see unfolding around us in harmonious certainty of
linked sequence, with nature irregular and fitful, changing and arbitrary,
incalculable, then it might [427] be that out of that chaos might be
flung up a being called “perfect”, but truly most imperfect, since most
limited, who, having no experience behind him, and therefore without reason
and without judgment, might, as a machine, act “rightly” in, i.e., in
accordance with, any given scheme of things, and grind out, as does a
machine, the sequence of movements arranged for it. But such a being would
only fit his scheme, and outside it would be useless, incompetent. Nor would
there here be life, which is the changing self-adaptation to changing
conditions, without the loss, the disintegration of its centre. By the
troublous path along which we are climbing, we are being prepared for all
emergencies in the universes in the future with which we may have to do, and
that is a result well worth the trials to which we are exposed.
Nor must we forget that we are here because we have
willed to unfold our powers through the experiences of life on the lower
planes; that our lot is self-chosen, not imposed; that we are in the world
as the result of our own “Will to [428] Live”; that if that Will
changed -though truly it is not so changeful - we should cease to live here
and return to the Peace, without gathering the harvest for which we came.
“None else compels.”
3. THE POWER OF THE WILL.
This power - which has ever been recognised in Occultism
as the spiritual energy in man, one in kind with that which sends forth,
supports and calls in the worlds - is now being groped after in the outer
world, and is being almost unconsciously used by many as a means of bringing
about results otherwise unattainable. The schools of Christian Science,
Mental Science, Mind-Cure, etc., are all dependent for their results on the
out-flowing power of the Will. Diseases yield to that flow of energy, and
not only nervous disorders, as some imagine. Nervous disorders yield the
most readily, because the nervous system has been shaped for the expression
of spiritual powers on the physical plane. The results are the most rapid
where the sympathetic [429] system is first worked upon, for that is
the more directly related to the aspect of Will, in the form of Desire, as
the cerebro-spinal is more directly related to the aspects of Cognition and
of pure Will. The dispersion of tumours, cancers, etc., and the destruction
of their causes, the curing of lesions and bone-fractures, imply for the
most part considerable knowledge on the part of the healer. I say “for the
most part”, because it is possible that the Will may be guided from the
higher plane even where physical plane knowledge is lacking, in the case of
an operator at an advanced stage of evolution. The method of cure, where
knowledge is present, would be as follows: the operator would form a mental
picture of the affected organ in a state of perfect health, creating that
part in mental stuff by the imagination: he would then build into it astral
matter, thus densifying the image, and would then use the force of magnetism
to densify it further by etheric matter, building the denser materials of
gases, liquids and solids into this mould, utilising the materials available
in the body and supplying from outside any deficiencies. [430] In all
this the Will is the guiding energy, and such manipulation of matter is
merely a question of knowledge, whether on this or on the higher planes.
There is not the danger in cures wrought by this method, that accompanies
those wrought by an easier, and therefore commoner, system, by the working
on the sympathetic system alluded to above.
People are advised, in some of the methods now
popularised, to concentrate their thoughts on the solar plexus, and to “live
under its control”. The sympathetic system governs the vital processes - the
functioning of the heart, lungs, digestive apparatus - and the solar plexus
forms its most important centre. Now the carrying on of these vital
processes has, as before explained,
passed under the control of the sympathetic system in the course of
evolution, as the cerebro-spinal system has become more and more dominant.
And the reviving of the control of this system by the Will, by a process of
concentration of thought, is a retrograde and not a forward step, even
though it often brings [431] about a certain degree of clairvoyance.
This method, as already said, is much followed in India in the system called
Hatha Yoga, and the student learns to control the action of the heart,
lungs, and digestive apparatus; he can thus inhibit the beating of the
heart, can stop the lungs, can reverse peristaltic action, and so on. And
when it is done, the question arises: What have you gained by your success?
You have brought again under the control of the Will a system which, in
course of evolution, had been rendered automatic, to the great convenience
of the owner of these lower functions, and have thus taken a step backward
in evolution. To do this means failure in the long run, even though there
may be, for the moment, a palpable result to show.
Moreover, the concentration of thought on a centre of the
sympathetic system, and, most of all, on the solar plexus, means a serious
physical danger, unless the learner be under the physical observation of his
teacher, or be able to receive and bring through to the physical brain the
instructions that may be given to him on a higher [432] plane.
Concentration on the solar plexus is apt to bring on disease of a peculiarly
intractable kind. It issues in a profound melancholy, almost impossible to
remove, in fits of terrible depression, and sometimes in a form of
paralysis. Not along these lines should travel the serious student, intent
on the knowledge of the Self. When that knowledge is obtained, the body
becomes the instrument on which the Self can play, and all that is needed
meanwhile is to purify and refine it, so that it may come into harmony with
the higher bodies, and be prepared to vibrate rhythmically with them. The
brain will thus be rendered more responsive, and by industrious thinking
and the action of meditation - not on the brain, but on lofty ideas - it
will be gradually improved. The brain becomes a better organ as it is
exercised, and this is on the road of evolution. But to work directly on the
sympathetic plexuses is on the road of retrogression. Many a one comes,
asking for deliverance from the results of these practices, and one can only
sadly answer: “To undo the mischief will take dears”. Results may be gained
quickly [433] by going backwards, but it is better to face the upward
climbing, and then utilise the physical instrument from above, not from
below.
There is another matter to be considered in healing
diseases by Will - the danger of driving the disease into a higher vehicle,
in driving it out of the physical body. Disease is often the final working
out of evil that existed previously on the higher planes, and it is then far
better to let it thus work out than to forcibly check it, and throw it back
into the subtler vehicle. It is the last working out of an evil desire or an
evil thought, and in such a case the use of physical means of cure is safer
than the use of mental means, for the former cannot cast it back into the
higher planes, whereas the latter may do so. Curative mesmerism does not run
this danger, belonging as it does to the physical plane; that may be used by
any one whose life, thoughts and desires are pure. But the moment Will
forces are poured down into the physical, there is a danger of reaction, and
of the driving of the disease back into the subtler vehicles from which it
came forth. [434]
If mental curing is done by the purification of thought
and desire, and the natural quiet working of the purified thoughts and
desires on the physical body, no harm can result; to restore physical
harmony by making harmonious the mental and astral vehicles is a true method
of mental healing, but it is not as rapid as the Will-cure and is far
harder. Purity of mind means health of body; and it is this idea - that
where the mind is pure the body should be healthy - that has led many to
adopt these mental methods of healing.
A person whose mind is perfectly pure and balanced will
not generate fresh bodily disease, though he may have some unexhausted
karma to work off, or he may take on himself some of the disharmonies caused
by others. Purity and health truly go together. When, as is and has been the
case, some saint is found to be suffering physically, then such a one is
either working out the effect of bad thinking in the past, or is bearing in
himself something of the world’s disharmony, turning on to himself the
forces of disharmony, harmonising them within his own vehicles [435]
and sending them forth again as currents of peace and goodwill. Many have
been puzzled by seeing that the greatest and the purest suffer, both
mentally and physically. They suffer for others, not for themselves, and
they are truly White Magicians, transmuting by spiritual alchemy, in the
crucible of their own suffering bodies, the base metals of human passions
into the pure gold of love and peace.
Apart from the question of the ways of working on the
body by the Will, another question arises in the thoughtful mind: Is it well
to use the Will in this fashion for our own helping? Is there not certain
degradation in using the highest power of the Divine within us in the
service of our body, to bring about merely a good condition of physical
health? Is it well that the Divine should thus turn stones into bread, and
so fall under the very temptation resisted by the Christ? The story may be
taken historically or mythically, it matters not; it contains a profound
spiritual truth, and an instance of obedience to an occult law. Still
remains true the answer of the [436] tempted: “Man does not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”.
This ethic seems to be on a higher plane than that which yokes the Divine to
the service of the physical body. One of the dangers of the present is the
worship of the body, the putting of the body on too high a pinnacle - a
reaction from exaggerated asceticism. By using the Will to serve the body,
we make the Will its slave, and the practice of continually removing little
aches and pains by willing them to go saps the higher quality of endurance.
A person thus acting is apt to be irritable under small physical discomforts
which the Will cannot remove, and the higher power of the Will, which can
control the body and support it in its work, even though it be suffering, is
undermined. Hesitancy to use the power of the Will for relief of one’s body
need not arise from any doubt as to the soundness of the thought, the
reality of the law, on which such action is based; but from a fear that men
may fall under the temptation of using that which should lift them to
realms spiritual as the minister of the [437] physical, and may thus
become slaves of the body, and be helpless when the body fails them in the
hour of need.
It is an occult law, binding on every Initiate, that he
may not use an occult power for his own helping; if he do, he loses the
power to help others, and it is not worth while to forfeit the great for the
small. That already referred-to story of the temptation of the Christ has a
further-reaching significance than most understand. Had He used His occult
power to turn stones into bread for the relief of His hunger, instead of
waiting in patient strength for the food brought by the Shining Ones, He
would not later have been able to endure the mystic sacrifice of the Cross.
The taunt then flung at Him contained an occult truth: “He saved others;
Himself He cannot save”. He could not use, to spare Himself one pang, the
powers that had opened the eyes of the blind and made the leper clean. Those
who would save themselves must give up the divine mission of being Saviours
of the world. They must choose between the one and the other as they evolve.
If in their [438] evolution they choose the lower, and use the great
powers they have won for the service of themselves and of the body, then
must they give up the higher mission of using them for the redemption of the
race. There is such an immense activity of mind at the present time that
the need is all the greater for the employment of its powers to the highest
ends.
4. WHITE AND BLACK MAGIC.
Magic is the use of the Will to guide the powers of
external nature, and is truly, as its name implies, the great science. The
human Will, being the power of the Divine in man, can subjugate and control
the inferior energies, and thus bring about the results desired. The
difference between White and Black Magic lies in the motive which determines
the Will; when that Will is set to benefit others, to help and bless all who
come within its scope, then is the man a White Magician, and the results
which he brings about by the exercise of his trained Will are beneficial,
and aid the course of human evolution. [439] He is ever expanding by
such exercise, becoming less and less separate from his kind, and is a
centre of far-reaching help. But when the Will is exercised for the
advantage of the lower self, when it is employed for personal ends and aims,
then is the man a Black Magician, a danger to the race, and his results
obstruct and delay human evolution. He is ever contracting by such exercise,
becoming more and more separate from his kind, shutting himself within a
shell which isolates him, and which grows ever thicker and denser with the
exercise of his trained powers. The Will of the Magician is ever strong, but
the Will of the White Magician is strong with the strength of life, flexible
at need, rigid at need, ever assimilating to the great Will, the Law of the
universe. The Will of the Black Magician has the strength of iron, pointing
ever to the personal end, and it strikes against the great Will, and sooner
or later must shiver itself into pieces against it. It is the peril of Black
Magic against which the student of occultism is guarded by the law which
forbids him to use his occult powers for [440] himself; for though no
man is a Black Magician who does not deliberately erect his personal Will
against the great Law, it is well to recognise the essence of Black Magic,
and to check the very beginnings of evil. Just as it was said above that the
saint harmonising the forces of disharmony within himself is truly the White
Magician, so is he the Black Magician who uses for his own gain all the
forces he has acquired by knowledge, turns them to the service of his own
separateness, and increases the disharmony of the world by his selfish
graspings, while seeking to preserve harmony in his own vehicles.
5. ENTERING INTO PEACE.
When the Self has grown so indifferent to the vehicles in
which he dwells that their vibrations can no longer affect him; when he can
use them for any purpose; when his vision has become perfectly clear; when
the vehicles offer no opposition, since the elemental life has left them,
and only the life flowing from himself animates them; then the Peace enfolds
[441] him and the object of the long struggle is attained. Such a
one, Self-centred, no longer confuses himself with his vehicles. They are
instruments to work with, tools to manipulate at his will. He has then
realised the peace of the Master, the one who is utterly master of his
vehicles, and therefore master of life and death. Capable of receiving into
them the tumult of the world and of reducing it to harmony; capable of
feeling through them the sufferings of others, but not sufferings of his
own; he stands apart from, beyond, all storms. Yet is he able ever to bend
down into the storm to lift another above it, without losing his own
foothold on the rock of the Divine, consciously recognised as himself. Such
are truly Masters, and Their peace may now and then be felt, for a time at
least, by those who are striving to tread the same path, but who have not
yet reached that same rock of the Self-conscious Divine.
That union of the separate Will with the one Will for the
helping of the world is the goal which seems to be more worthy of reaching
after than aught the world can [442] offer. Not to be separate from
men, but one with them; not to win peace and bliss alone, but to say with
the Chinese Blessed One: “Never will I enter into final peace alone, but
always and everywhere will I suffer and strive until all enter with me” -
that is the crown of humanity. In proportion as we can realise that the
suffering and the striving are the more efficacious as we suffer only in the
sufferings of others and feel not suffering for ourselves, we shall rise
into the Divine, shall tread the “razor path” that the Great Ones have
trodden, and shall find that the Will, which has guided us along that path,
and which has realised itself in the treading of that path, is strong enough
still to suffer and to strive, until the suffering and the strife for all
are over, and all together enter into Peace. [443]
PEACE TO ALL BEINGS.
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